A Harryish Saga
by Leftywrite
Summary: Harry finally gets over Cho becuz of Cho's cousin, and Draco gets a new gf too...rated PG-13 because of unabashed cussing and a couple of superbly snoggalicious scenes. Snape is 30. ess/harry, loki/draco, ess/snape, draca/sname, OW/ginny COMPLETE!!!!!!!!
1. The Arrival

*Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this fanfic except for Essence Lei and Lokara Thompson, and some really minor characters in Ravenclaw.  
  
~Fic starts here~ People in the Great Hall were staring. Ok. So Essence Lei was starting to regret doing the damn exchange program, well, not really. 'Cuz British guys were all sexy. But why were they staring? She turned to her best friend, Lokara Thompson: "So, why the hell are they staring?" "Uh, Ess, maybe it's cuz your skirt can not be seen without a microscope?" "So?" "Umm, whatever. Maybe cuz we're different? Like yanks?" honestly, thought Lokara, why wasn't Ess a blond? "OK. Whatever. My cousin, Cho, said Harry Potter was here." "DUH. Like I didn't know that. So?" "So. He's right there." "Where?" "The hottie!" "What hottie?" "The hottie with the black hair, glasses, and a fuckin' scar on his forehead!! LOKI!!!" honestly, Loki could be so dense sometimes. "He's not hot." Said Loki "Shut up" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OK. Harry Potter was speechless for once. So there was a girl hotter than Cho. If all the rumors were true, it was Cho's cousin. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Draco Malfoy knew he was staring, but who cared? Like he could take his eyes off the auburn haired one (a.k.a. Lokara, Loki, etc. I'm sure all the people reading this are bright enough to get the nicknames, right?). GOD! He had no idea anyone but models could look like that. He loved her violet eyes. The girl was all curvy. And tall. WHOA! Calm down Draco! So she's pretty. But she's a yank. Yank's aren't pretty. Nope. This one was. It must be his imagination. Nope! Still there. Still hot. GODAMMIT!! Why the fuck is she so drop dead gorgeous?! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Attention! Silence please!" called Albus Dumbledore, "as some of you may know, this year we have some foreign exchange students from America, Miss Essence Lei and Miss Lokara Thompson, students at the Salem School Witchcraft and Wizardry. We have the pleasure of having these two special people because, as you might have heard, Miss Lei happens to be Miss Cho Chang's cousin. I expect you to be on your best behavior, as any person who teats our American guests badly will most certainly be sentenced to a most gruesome detention with Mr. Argus Filch. That being said, let the feast begin!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Essence and Loki took a place next to Cho and the other Ravenclaws. Essence immediately shed her sparkly black, knee-length over-robe, and Loki did the same with her violet one, much to the staring of all the Hogwarts guys. Loki shrugged. So what? They probably had never seen muggle clothes before. But oh well. She would bet ten galleons that half of them were about to faint over Essie's mini-micro skirt and green silk SHORT spaghetti strap thank top. And maybe even over Loki's own low rise black jeans and long-sleeve black shirt. Whatever. WAIT!! OH MI GOD!! Who was the hottie at the Slytherin table? OH MI GOD!!!!! LIKE DAMN! He was hot!! Like really muy muy muy muy guapo hot!!!!(an: in case you don't speak Spanish, muy means very and guapo means hot ;p). MAN! And he was staring right at her?! O god, everyone watch Lokara melt into a big puddle of liquid Loki. HOLY SHIT!! Was he smirking at her? Loki had no idea how hot a guy (wait. THE GUY) could look with a smirk. Make that a boilin' burnin' puddle of liquid Loki. OK.death by a hot guy. "It feels good to melt" was Lokara's last comprehendible thought before she collapsed on to the floor, much surrounded by Ravenclaw guys. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
While Loki was hyperventilating over Draco, Essence was checking out Harry Potter. She liked the whole green eyes black hair combo. His hair was so cute, in a very hot sort of way. All dark and rumply. Wait? Was he staring back? Was her hair fine? she reached up to smooth her black- brown hair with natural and dyed red streaks. Shit. Frizzies. Essence was dimly aware that there was food on the table, but she didn't want it. Who needed it? Hell, this guy was total eye candy. Essence was about to lick her lips, but stopped just in time. No need for him to think she was a perv. Was he waving? How sweet! She waved, and was about to turn to Loki and tell her when she heard and dull *THUMP*. Essie (an: Essence and Essie and Ess are all the same people) whirled around just in time to see a very hot guy at the Slytherin table look quickly at his plate. She looked down and saw Loki. Kind of. She had a lot of guys around her, trying to revive her. O Lord. She just had to have a HGIH (Hot Guy I'm Hyperventilating) fit now, didn't she? God. Loki was practically a living hormone when it came to guys.  
  
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A couple of minutes later, Loki popped up. "I'm fine, just fine. Must have gotten hypoglycemic (an: that means low on sugar of food so your body can't function that well and you faint). Mmmm this food smells good. OK guys, I AM FINE!! No need to get me claustrophobic and hypoglycemic at the same time!" Loki giggled nervously. Damn, he was all embarrassed looking. Why did she have to all HGIH right then? He probably thought she was all ditzy now. Well, she'd show him. Loki almost growled, but stopped, just in time. She didn't want any more people looking at her. And besides. Lasagna was her favorite food.  
  
"Nice HGIH fit Loki. Right on the first day here"  
  
"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!!" Essie was being so unfair, "look, the blonde guy, the really blond guy-"  
  
"Oh. Lord. Not another blond guy fetish."  
  
"Let me finish! Anyways, the white-blond hottie at the Slytherin table, he was staring at me. And he smirked!"  
  
"So?"  
  
"So? So? Duh! Earth to Essence! Pure concentrated hotness Ess! Look, he's starin' and smirkin' again!"  
  
Essie looked over. OK. So he was hot. But she liked Harry better. Harry looked so, so, pure. Sure, Essence liked naughty-assed guys, but Harry was different. Hell, Harry was irresistible. And it was a god thing to that she liked Harry better, cuz if Loki was going to hyperventilate every time she saw this dude, Essie was sure Loki would kill her if she was attracted to the guy too. So who was he? She turned to her cousin, who was smirking at Essie and Loki's conversation.  
  
"So, who is Loki's hottie?"  
  
"Which one, the one she fainted on, or a different one?" quipped Cho.  
  
"Stop being sarcastic. Who is he?"  
  
"His name is -"  
  
"My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy" Whoa. What was the blondie hottie doing here? Oh. Yeah. He probably walked.  
  
"Err.hi. Lokara Thompson." Squeaked Loki, "She's Essence Lei."  
  
"I figured, Lokara," murmured Draco as he (surprising everyone in the Great Hall) lifted Loki's hand to his lips, "I hope we will get a better chance to know each other this year." He spun around, nodding to Essie and winking and Loki, whose mouth was resembling a god fish at the moment.  
  
There was a brief silence until Loki whispered to Essence, "GOD he has a nice ass!"  
  
Essie started cracking up, and couldn't stop for five whole minutes. "You doofball! You were so busy looking at his ass you didn't notice your note!"  
  
"Note?" asked Loki, confused, "What note? OOH! The note in my hand, note!" she opened it up and read (silently)  
  
I never knew a girl could look so pretty when she fainted. Or so sexy when she was shocked as a muggle in a rainstorm. ~Draco Malfoy.  
  
P.S. why the bloody fucking hell did you faint anyways?  
  
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Authors Note: I KNOW I stole the note scene from the Titanic, but god, wasn't that the only good part in the whole entire movie? 


	2. Potions Class

~Fic starts here~ Cho, being the head girl that she was, led Essence and Lokara up to the rooms they would be in. Cho showed them how to program their password into the portrait hole (HGIH fit). Their rooms were trés neat ( an: that's very in French, my readers!) Essie's had a canopy bed with curtains that were cobalt blue gauze. The walls were the exact replicas of the night sky, with wizard portraits (moving, of course) of celestial bodies. Cho told Essie the wall changed according to the time of day, mimicking the sky exactly. And of course, there was a window seat. There was also a walk-in closet that was the size of a room that produced its own clothes, just Essie's style and size. Loki's room mirrored her taste exactly, with a walk-in closet like Essie's (except her style of clothes and her size). The bed was a canopy with lavender and violet gauze that shimmered. There was an artist's easel, the walls changed colors according to what Loki was in the mood for. Right now, they featured moving pictures of, who else, Draco Malfoy. Some more appropriate than others. "Ummm, right I'll just leave now," said Cho, looking queasily at all the Dracos, "here's your schedule, and a map of Hogwarts. Just speak the class name and it shows exactly where it is. BYE!!" she left in a hurry, looking like she was going to be sick. "Well. I have no idea what her problem was," said Loki in a huff, "Draco isn't looking at her in the walls. He's blowing kisses at me." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The next day, both Loki and Essie had potions first. Because they both pressed the snooze button on their alarm clocks 10 times, they had just enough time to grab a bite of toast (In Loki's case, more staring at Draco than biting) and head down to the potions dungeon. Apparently, they shared the class with Slytherin and Gryffindors in 6th year (an: just like Harry and Draco guys!) The dungeon was really freaking Essie out. It was all stone-y and cold and wet. Except for the fires under the cauldrons. Suddenly, their professor, Severus Snape burst in, stalking up to his desk and leaning against it. Essie noticed he wore, like, ten jillion pounds of black and then a floor length over-robe which he held closed. Snape sent a panoramic (an: that means all around the class) sneer all around the class, majorly frightening a Gryff Essie head someone call Neville. "I see that I'm still stuck with the dunderheads I left," sighed Snape sarcastically, "I had hoped some of you had killed yourselves over the summer holiday." Loki couldn't help it. She laughed. Really hard. She couldn't help it. It sounded soo like something Essie would say to someone who was bugging her. Totally. "Ah yes, our new yank visitors," sneered Snape, "I wonder if you are as stupid as I think you are." Essie couldn't believe it. Her? Stupid? Hell, this was Encyclopedia Lei here. Understander and Knower of weird, useful, and everyday facts and knowledge. And did he just call them stupid? "Well, if your brain is as bad as your fashion sense, I might have to end up teaching this class, Mr. Know-it-all-but-not-really!" Essie snapped, "and didn't your mom ever tell you that yank is a derogatory term? It was coined by British soldiers during the Revolutionary War. As heard in the song Yankee Doodle. Which was a satire at first, but we "yanks" used it as our own "theme" song, per se. It was even played by the British at the Surrender of Yorktown, along with The World Turned Upside-down." There! Thought Essie as she smugly sat back in her chair, that shows him how stupid I am. He looked really funny now. Like a constipated cow.  
  
"What is your name girl?" hissed Snape "Uh, someone wasn't paying attention during the feast. My name's essence Lei." "Well Miss Lei, you will accompany me to my office." Snape grabbed Essence's arm and pulled her out of her seat, half dragging her to his office across the hall. OK. That was stupid. Why couldn't she shut up. She was now in some serious hippogriff shit. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Miss Lei, as one of your professors this year, I demand respect!" hissed Snape in his semi-lit office, "you seem to have none, just like the Americans in your 'Revolution'" "Oh really? Were you there? Ya seem old enough."  
  
"WHAT did you say to me girl?!" yelled an angered Snape as he pushed Essie against the wall and held her there at the neck. "Gosh, you must have been there.at what century did your ears stop working?" DAMMIT. Why couldn't she control her own mouth? She was literally in a corner. OK maybe if she concentrated really, REALLY hard, she could disappear. 1-2-3 CONCENTRATE!!! The American girl looked like she wanted to disappear right now. Why? Maybe she was regretting the things she said to him. Fat chance but what was she doing? "What the bloody hell are you trying to do?" "Disappear." Oh god, she had not just said that. "Well then." Ok. So what was she supposed to do now? Umm, compliment him? "Err, professor, you know, you actually look kinda sexy when you're confused" Ok. Shit.that had NOT sounded right. Snape raised his eyebrow. Well. Hadn't heard that one before. The things students did to get out of trouble. "Ooh, do that again, professor, that makes you look even sexier." Ok mouth, cut the crap! Snape started to smile. No student had ever done this before. They were all scared shitless of him. He let go of her neck. "So, will you not mouth off in my class, Lei, hm?" Snape asked "Only if ya quite being a jackass." Oh crudders. Not her mouth again. Snape raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I mean, I call any guy I think is hot and sexy a jackass. Cuz you're really sexy professor. I bet you have a killer bod under all that black and ya just cover it up so girls don't go all crazy on you. Hehe, wont fool me. I have a killer bod sensor. Can tell who has one and who doesn't." oh god. Why didn't she have a nice mouth? She was babbling again. Snape placed a hand over her mouth. This was rather funny, but it had to stop. He had a class to teach. "You know, Lei, I keep veritaserum with me at all times. So I could force feed you it and actually get some truth out of you. So bloody shut up and go back to class. And you have detention. For lying and mouthing of in my class." "How do you know I was lying?" said Essence huskily. Ok. Enough with the mouth she thought! Isn't once enough? "Just get the bloody hell out of her and back to class!" growled Snape "Roger-dodger professor! Right away!" chirped Essence as she skipped back to the potions dungeon. Snape growled again. He was getting a headache 


	3. Now That Draco's Met Loki, When Harry Me...

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this fanfic except for Essence, Lokara, and a couple of Ravenclaw quidditch players who have very minor parts.  
  
~Fic starts here~  
  
After potions, Harry Potter walked up to Essence. "Are you OK? I mean, Snape kept sending you weird looks during class. Like he wanted to kill you and he didn't want to at the same time.oh, wait, sorry, didn't introduce myself. Harry Potter" said Harry, extending his hand. "Oh. Don't worry. I already figured out who you are," reassured Essie, struggling to shake his hand and carry all her potions stuff at the same time. "Oh. Here," murmured Harry, as he took all of Essence's books and ingredients. "Awww! You shouldn't have. Now I really can't shake your hand." "Oh," smiled Harry, "I wasn't done yet.Wingardium Leviosa!" he softly cried.,all their books were now levitating. "There!," he said, taking Essie's hand and shaking it in both of his, "what class are you going to next?" "Transfiguration" "Me too! Here, I'll show you where it is." He beckoned Essie and Loki to follow him, and wouldn't let Essie get her books back until they got there. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"so, how far have you gotten in your studies, girls?" asked Professor Mcgonagall "Um, we just started complex human transfiguration in class last term," replied Essence. "Really. How complex?" "Um, brain switches and brain transfiguration, actually. We just practiced on animals, like rats." "Really. Well, you two are far more advanced than this batch is at the moment. Why don't you two assist me until we get to where you broke off?" "OK. That's cool with me. How about you Loki?" "Cool with me too. 'Cept I might add Essie is the good transfiguration person. Not me." "So I will teach you better when we get there" said Mcgonagall primly, "and in the meantime, you can assist with teaching complete animal switches. Loki and Essence looked at each other. They had learned that in the beginning of 5th year! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Class! Class! Listen please!" called Mcgonagall, clapping her hands, "we will start out the year by doing complete animal switches. As Miss Lei and Miss Thompson are a wee bit more advanced than we are, they will be doubling as assistants. Now, does anyone know the incantation for a full animal switch?" Essie looked around. There was only one person raising her hand. A girl with very bushy brown hair and big brown eyes-who was sitting right next to Harry-Essie felt a quick surge of jealousy before actually listening to the girl. "The correct incantation for a full animal switch is animorum metamorphi. It is very important to keep the animal you want to switch the current animal to in your head while performing the spell." She rattled off in a matter-of-fact voice. "Quite correct Miss Granger. Ten points to Gryffindor.: Essence barely heard someone whisper "good job Hermione" before the girl sat down, and saw Harry give Hermione a high five. What? Oh, Harry just winked at her. Aww! He was so cute! And hot! And he liked her, not miss major hair lift. Nope. Miss hair lift was just a friend. "Did you hear me, Miss Lei? I was wondering if you would show the class how to alter animals, please." The way Mcgonagall said it, Essie could tell that it wasn't the first time. She blushed. Why did she have to always zone out whenever a hot guy was in the room?  
  
"OK." "Just come up here and alter this rat please, into a cat." "Sure. Any special request? Does anyone want the cat to look a special way?" A red-haired guy sitting next to Harry snorted. Essie was quite offended. "What? You don't think I can do it? Cuz I can. You got a request, ginger?" The boy scowled. Good. Essie could tell that he hated to be called ginger. Well, too bad. She was soo gonna show him. "Yeah," he replied sarcastically, "How about making it purple with blue spots?" "No problem!" Essie chirped, "OK! Here I go!" She focused her concentration on a mental image of a purple, blue polka-dotted Persian cat before murmuring "animorum metamorphi". Instantly, a quick, soft blast of light came out of her wand (an: Essie's wand is willow, with ground unicorn horn and is 11 inches. Loki's is ebony with unicorn hair and is 8 inches). Immediately, the rat turned into a Persian, purple, blue-dotted cat. When the laughter had calmed down, she turned to the red-haired guy and said, "told ya so, whatever your name is. The poor guy looked really humiliated as he said "Ron Weasley" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
After Transfiguration, Harry left Ron and Hermione and walked up toe Essie. "Wow. That was bloody brilliant transfiguration on your part," he said enthusiastically. Essie blushed. "Thanks, Harry" "So do you have divination next too?" Harry asked Essie. "Yeah! Hey, it looks like we all have the same schedule!" "Cool, OK, I gotta tell you though, Trelawny is a bloody fraud." "Oh. That's OK, I knew that already", replied Loki. "Huh? Who told you that?" asked Harry, looking severely confused "No one" replied Loki. Oh. She guessed he didn't get it. Better explain some more. "Uh, I guess now is a great time to tell you that.um.I'm a seer?" Great thought Loki. She hated blurting out things about herself. But between the way she acted with Draco and the way she just blurted out her seeing ability, she was definitely thinking about putting duct tape over her mouth. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Divination class was a scream. Trelawny kept predicting Harry's death, and Loki kept saying he wouldn't even get a serious wound by the end of the year. Ron was great. He made this great comment about how he would have to start taking bets on whether Harry was going to keep being the boy- that-lived or just the boy-who-lived-until-his-sixth-year-at-Hogwarts. Essie had a feeling that Ron was really a great guy. After Divination, they went to the Great Hall for lunch. While Lokara (who right now was not having an HGIH, thank God), was busy looking at Draco, Essence was looking at Harry. He was so animated. And hot. After asking Cho if she minded (Loki was too busy looking at the magnificent Malfoy to talk) Essie went over the Gryffindor table and tapped Harry on the shoulder. "Mind if I sit here?" asked Essie. "No! No, of course not!" said Harry eagerly. Essence smiled and sat down, taking off the over robe she had on today-a black silk one. Her smile got wider when she say Harry's expression. She was wearing a one- strapped cobalt shiny shirt with a mini-mini low-rise jean skirt that hugged her hips snuggly. J This was going to be a fun lunch. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "So," asked Harry, "Play Quidditch?" "Oh gosh! Hell yeah!" Ess practically yelled, " I LOVE quidditch. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's the best sport ever. I LOVE flying. Just all the whooshing and zooming and soaring in the air, and playing a sport at the same time, so there's actually a point.I play any position, really, but I like seeker best.why? Do you play? What position? What type of broom do you have? I have a Spectrum 5000.it's really, REALLY cool (an: Loki has a Nebula 360. Both the Spectrum 5000 and the Nebula 360 are the American equivalent to a Firebolt, if not better). Harry smiled. Essence was so cute. And hot. She was so enthusiastic. And could be a real bitch to the right people. Seriously. Snape was still giving her weird looks. Kinda like he couldn't figure out how to treat her yet. "Whoa. Slow down. Yes I play. Seeker too, actually. And I have a Firebolt.but what the hell is a Spectrum 5000? "What? OH! Its an American broom. Really good quality. About the same as your Firebolt." "Ah! Right!" "So introduce me to everyone. They're staring hard enough. And please, call me Essie. Essence is too formal." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
While Essence was off with Harry at the Gryff table, Loki was still trying to manage to NOT stare at Draco so much. But it wasn't working. At least she could tell Ess that she was trying. Just not very hard. Wait! WHERE DID HE GO? Attention, attention! Stolen hottie! Search all rooms! Thief will be severely puni-" "Hello Lokara. I trust you remember me from last night?" EEP! He was right behind her. Whispering. In her ear. Wow. He smelled good. "Um, er, ah, er," shit. Not her goldfish face again. One day, she was going to dislocate he jaw. Seriously. "I take it from your expression you didn't expect to see me here?" "Errrrr." oh God. Why did he have to sound all sexy and talk like James Bond mixed with Sense and Sensibility? Any other guy would sound dumb. But when he did it, he sounded all hot-y and sexy and gorgeous-y and o god. She was about to melt again. "Just, call me the human crayon," thought Lokara. She looked as shocked as she did last night. This Lokara girl amazed Draco. He wondered if she could talk. Didn't matter, really, as long as she could snog. "Umm, are you all right?" "Err.yeah. It's just that you sounded all English-ish and sexy and you look really sexy too just now" Loki slapped her forehead. She DID NOT just say that. Draco raised one eyebrow. He'd never heard that one before. Sure, Pansy Parkinson was all over him, and called him sexy all the time, but never like that. Pansy sounded slutty. Lokara sounded so awkward and sexy at the same time. She was so irresistible. "I'm glad the feeling's mutual," Draco murmured "What?" Loki asked. She had been too busy looking to listen. Draco bent down and leaned in so close to Loki's ear, his could feel his lips graze her skin. "I said that I'm very glad the feeling's mutual, Lokara Thompson." "OK. HGIH fit coming on. OH MI GOD was all Loki could think before she swooned. Backwards. Right into Draco Malfoy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Uhhhhh" groaned Loki. She felt awful. Like she had been bashed by a troll with a club. Wait. Where was she? She was in a bed, but not her cool bed in her dorm. This bed was all hard and white-y. "I say that was the best HGIH you ever had" quipped Essence "Uhh.where am I?" Loki felt REALLY zombie-ish and icky. "how long have I been here?" "2 hours.ya mean you don't remember anything?" "Uh, no, I was kinda unconscious, Ess" "Oh. Yeah. Well, after you basically collapsed into Draco's arms, he insisted on carrying you here, all the way to the hospital wing from the Great Hall. It was really sweet. He was all worried and stuff. All the girls are envious of you now. He heard your hypoglycemic story from someone, so he sent this up." Essence held up the cutest teddy bear that Loki had ever seen. He had black, shiny eyes, a soft leather nose, and was a rich, dark brown. He even had a green and white Slytherin scarf! The teddy was holding a gold-tinted box of what looked like chocolate. "He said to wave a charm at it and it would do something. What was it? Oh, yeah. Hold on." Essence pulled out her wand and murmured "mobilius ursa". Instantaneously, the bear sprang to his feet and walked up to Loki. "I was told to deliver these chocolates to Miss Lokara Thompson, compliments of Mr. Draco Malfoy" recited the bear, "oh yeah! And he sends his regards in this letter." The bear pulled a letter out of his scarf. "An' he also said that you were to keep me." "Aww! How sweet!" cooed Loki. The bear had the cutest Cockney accent ever. He sounded like he was from Oliver Twist. She could just see this teddy launch into a song-and-dance routine that featured Consider Yourself from Oliver. "So Teddy, ya got a name?" "Nope." "Well, I'll just call you Draco then." That being done, Loki opened the box. Inside was a red rose and two very expensive-looking chocolates. She opened the letter after twining the rose around the bun in her hair. It read: My dear Lokara~ I heard you get hypoglycemic and faint when you don't eat, so I sent up these chocolates to make you feel better. Of course, when you fainted into me, you had just eaten two slices of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and a salad with pumpkin juice (I watched you) so the hypoglycemic story really doesn't make sense, but have the chocolates anyways. I hope you enjoy the bear, but if he gets rather annoying, just say "ceasium ursa" and he'll become a normal stuffed animal again. ~Draco Malfoy P.S. so what was the real reason you fainted? P.P.S. You still looked sexy when you fainted. I'm amazed. 


	4. Love Springs verdently from quidditch

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this fic except for Essence, Loki, and a couple of very minor Ravenclaw people.  
  
~Fic Starts here~  
  
OK. There were two classes Loki officially hated: Potions and Defense against the Dark Arts. She couldn't stand Divination either, but that was only cuz of Trelawney. And she was a seer anyways. (an: to my readers: THAT IS VERY IMPORTANT!). She always aced Divination. But Potions and DADA were two very different stories. She had always hated Potions. Hers always turned out wrong. And Snape knew it. So her shrinking solution actually enlarged instead of shrunk. Who cared? Like she was going to pay attention with Draco sitting in the same room as her. And she always felt like she was going to throw up when Snape kept checking Essie out. Seriously. Ever since she mouthed off at him he was all cow-eyed at her. It didn't help that Essie's wardrobe usually consisted of microscopic skirts with a tank top or a one strap. And when Harry rubbed Essie's arms when she started getting cold, Snape practically shot sparks with the glare he sent Harry. And gave poor Harry detention for breathing. Everyone complained majorly about Snape's detentions, but Ess had privately told Loki all he did was talk with her like a shrink about her "Lack of respect." BOTH times. EW. Who wanted a full-nosed old guy lusting after them? She pitied Ess. The DADA teacher annoyed her greatly. His name? Mad-eye Moody. Some jumpy ex-auror whose imposter had turned Draco into a FERRET a couple of years ago. His magical eye could see through anything. The perv was always looking at girls. EW. She'd noticed that he turned his magical eye especially toward one of the professors, Professor Sinestra, the witch who taught astronomy. Loki felt for Sinestra, too.  
  
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Oh well. At least both of them had made the Ravenclaw quidditch team. Technically, they weren't in a house, but Cho had pulled a couple of strings, being head girl and the old Ravenclaw seeker. Cho had opted not to play this year cuz of her workload, so Essie was seeker and Loki had won one of the beater spots. Everyone loved Loki's Nebula 360 and Essie's Spectrum 5000. no one had ever seen them before. They loved the black walnut of the Spectrum and the silver birch of the Neb. No one had a broom of this quality, except for maybe Harry Potter, with his Firebolt.  
  
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OK! Essie was SOO not nervous. So she had her first quidditch match at Hogwarts. So? So she had to compete wit the youngest, fastest, most talented seeker at Hogwarts for a century. No biggie. Aw.who was she fooling? Certainly not herself.  
  
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OK. Loki was ready to put the bad in badass. Gryffindor was SOO goin' down. They had not ment the Lokiblaster, new secret weapon of the Ravenclaw team. She was so going to kick some Gryffindor butt. With Draco watching.  
  
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"OK team, we are so going to win this game. Ravenclaw has never had this strong of a team in ages." the team captain, Caitlin Drearborn, was giving the pre-game pep talk. Neither Loki nor Essence were paying that much attention. Essie kept shooting Loki terrified looks, and Loki kept shooting back reassuring, 'we're gonna kick some butt' looks. Which helped Essie's nerves a little. ".So go out there and win, team!" finished Drearborn, finally. The whole team gave a whoop and headed out to the quidditch pitch.  
  
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"OK, I know I will get a nice, clean game of quidditch from both teams," yelled madam Hooch, "so confirm my thoughts. On my whistle, begin the game. Three.Two.ONE! PHWEET!" "Ravenclaw chase, Padma Patil seizes the quaffle immediately and zooms down the pitch, flanked by fellow chasers Angelica Cheknova and Caitlin Drearborn.Patil passes to Cheknova who passes to Drearborn who takes a shot and.SCORES!! 10 points to Ravenclaw!" Essie looked up. Oh lord. Of all people to be commentating, it had to be her stalker.Snape.She squinted. No sing of any snitch anywhere. Harry kept tailing her. ARGH! She HATED it when people did that. Suddenly, a bludger flew right past her. "And a passable beater tactic by Lokara Thompson, keeping Gryffindor seeker, Harry Potter, from further annoying Ravenclaw seeker Essence Lei."  
  
Essie shook her head. Snape's dislike for Loki and Harry showed, eve out here. She mouthed thanks to Loki before going into a VERY steep dive. She heard Harry next to her. This was to show him not to follow her. Ever. Essence pulled out of her Wronski Feint right before she would have gone face first into the dirt. Actually, she started a really, REALLY steep climb. She chanced a look back. DAMN. He was STILL following her. She flew purposefully in front of a bludger and then dropped. Harry was tailing her so close he got a serious bludger in the face. "And Essence Lei uses a magnificent seeker aversion tactic to be rid of the annoying Potter."  
  
Essence rolled her eyes. Snape really annoyed her sometimes. She was dimly aware that Ravenclaw was up 60 points. The Gryffs had 20. she stopped scanning just in time to see Loki aim a bludger at a Gryffindor beater the exact same time the beater was aiming for Loki. WHOA! The two bludger exploded on each other. Whoever had hit the other bludger could hit pretty damn hard. "Ginny Weasley and Lokara Thompson succeed in being the first beaters ever to explode both bludgers at once.not surprising. Thompson can explode anything." "HEY!" yelled Loki, "that wasn't very nice!" Essie saw Harry wipe his face. Whoa! MAJOR bloody nose. Oh shit. The snitch was right in the middle of the miniature cloud of bludger-bits that was STILL pursuing players. Nobody saw it but her and Harry. Harry couldn't steer well. The blood was all over his face. So Essie did something both very brave and very stupid. She flew straight into the bludger cloud and (getting torn to bits in the process) caught the snitch. OW! Those bits could cut! "And Ravenclaw wins, 230 points to 20, thanks to that amazingly stupid but brilliant catch by Miss Lei. Now would someone get the damn-("Severus" cried McGonagall) cloud to get off Lei? She's starting to look severely cut up.  
  
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"OOH!" Essie was sore. Who would have thought little bludger bits cut so much? Ugh. She probably looked like shit. She opened her eyes. Was she in the hospital wing? She sat up quickly. By her bed was what looked like a flower stand mixed with a sweet factory. Whoa. Guess people didn't know about her allergy problem. "ACHOO!" she sniffed. "I see you're awake, Miss Lei." Essie groaned and twisted her body so that she faced the other side of her bed. Her bedside just had to be all occupied by Mr. Full Nosed. Argh. He had probably hexed Harry away. "Yeah. I am. Why do you care?" Essie snapped. She was getting a little tired of her very big snozzed stalker. The guy was practically all beak. "I care, Miss Lei, because you were knocked unconscious by a sizable bludger chunk. I had to carry you up here." "Yeah. Right." Huffed Essence, "I'm sure you couldn't just magic up a stretcher and zoom me up here. And then only you could have magicked me. Or if a person just HAD to carry me, it had to be you, cuz only you are strong enough. PUL-EEZ. People think I'm anorexic, I'm so skinny. And right. I know. Harry would have damaged me further. Right." Ess rolled her eyes. Snape sucked at lying. If a person lied, they sould at least lie good. "And lemme guess. You scared poor Harry off."  
  
Snape looked very uncomfortable. So he sucked at lying. So? So he sent Potter away cuz he was jealous. So? He told Potter that Essie need her rest. And had given him detention for talking. Snape had sworn off women years ago, but, MERLIN, this girl was different. When you first looked at her, you wouldn't think she could hurt a fly. But from what he'd seen (and heard) of her, she could be smart-mouthed with the best of them, plus fly like hell. Call him what you will, but poor Snape was smitten. Pretty, smart-assed witches who could fly turned him on. Essie didn't like the way he was looking at her. Like he was checking her out. GOD. Wasn't during class enough? And EEP! She was in a cami and pajama shorts. Not good. She pulled all her blankets around her. Where was Harry? She really needed Harry now. REALLY. OOH Harry. Snape noticed her pull all her blankets around her. He sighed. And he though HE was the pervert here. He hadn't even noticed what she was wearing. Well, not REALLY. Not that she was wearing that much. He also didn't like the way she was looking at him. Like a bunny looks at a fox. "Look Lei," he growled bulling her by the neck of her camisole, "I am her because I was worried about you. And you act like I'm gonna rape you or something. OK? Cut the shit. OK? You can let go of all the blankets, because I'm leaving. Bloody fucking bye." Snape threw Essence back in the bed and stalked away. But right before he left, Essence quit doing a goldfish face and called "Wait!" "What?" growled Snape. "Th-thanks." Snape froze and turned around. He walked back to her and leaned in so that their noses almost touched. "What did you say Lei?"  
  
"I-I said th-thanks Mr. Know-it-all-but-not-when-it-comes-to-girls!" Snape couldn't stand it anymore. He leaned furter in and kissed Essence. On the lips.  
  
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OH MI GOD. Essence couldn't believe it. Sure, the guy was not the friendliest, or the youngest, but DAMN. He could kiss. She was dimly aware that his hands were moving. One was on the back of her neck, holding her there, and the other was on the small of her back, on bare skin. This was mind-boggling. She was so confused that she was dizzy. She grabbed his shoulders for support.  
  
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Severus Snape was siliently cursing himself for his lack of judgment and his weakness. He shouldn't be doing this. He should stop. But Merlin, he couldn't. This girl was so intoxicating. He hadn't felt this way in years. It was so good. He pulled away for a second and whispered "You're welcome" before going back for more. Suddenly, there was a big *THUMP* near the doorway. Snape jumped. Essie jumped. The bumped. Snape fell backwards onto Essie's bed and Essie hit her head on the head board of the bed, just in time to see Loki with a seriously gold-fish look on her face and a huge box of chocolate spilled at her feet.  
  
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Snape left really quickly, almost running. Form the look on his face, Essence guessed he was going off somewhere private to hit himself. Hell, Essie felt like doing the same thing. "Oh my god. And you call me boy crazy? At least I don't go around snogging professors," said Loki smugly, "You can't talk now" Essence felt like slapping Loki. So she did. On the arm. "Ow! What was that for?" "Look, being snogged by Snape is traumatizing enough, but with my best friend teasing me about it, that makes it worse. GOD. You don't have to make fun."  
  
"But, but, but, it was Mr. Know-it-all-but-not-really!" "So? God STOP! It's not my fault!" Essie was really crying now. Tears were making spots on her cami. "GOD. Okay. I'll stop. But you have no idea how funny it looked." Essie couldn't help it. She dove under the covers of the hospital bed and started wailing. Loki really couldn't make out anything but a couple of 'fuck yous' and a few 'dammits' but that was all. "Ess! Stop! Pomfrey will hear!" "GOD. I can'd believe you are deasink me abound somedink lige dis. Do you dow how frsdrading dis is? I'm so confused." "Why?" Loki was genuinely curious now. "Cuz Snape can SNOG!"  
  
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It was after dark, but Essence and Loki were dressed to kill. Essie had on a magenta halter top, ANOTHER micro-mini skirt (black jean this time) with a slit in it. She was wearing stiletto long boots. Loki was wearing hip- hugger black jeans with a black cami and a black lace shirt with bells sleeves over it. Both were wearing black over-robes. They were going to see Harry and Draco. Harry invited Essie over to celebrate her getting over all the bludger wounds. Draco was just inviting Loki (an: yes, he calls her Loki) over for the heck of it. They slipped out of their portrait hole. (an: the portrait is a painting of a lady knight on a white horse vanquishing a fiery chimera, aka a big monster thingie with a lions head, a goats body and a snake tail. That breathes fire.)  
  
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Loki walked over to the meeting place Draco had said. Where was he? Oh shit. Footsteps. She was getting ready to hid when- "You look pretty when you're scared." "AH! Don't DO that!" "Do what?" said Draco, stepping extremely close to Loki "Don't scare me like that. I thought you were Snape." "Funny. I look nothing like him" "No. But you sounded like him" "Oh really. I would have thought that my nose made less noise than his elephantine one." "It does. But he's patrolling halls tonight." "So?"  
  
"So he hates me." "Doesn't matter, so long as I'm here. Did I neglect to tell you my father is one of the most influential wizards in England?" "Oh." Loki felt stupid "But I didn't set up this meeting to talk about Snape." "No?" "No. I met you to give you this." Draco pulled Loki into his arms so close that there was no space in between the two of them, and place his mouth onto hers.  
  
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Essie met Harry near the Gryffindor common room. At least, she thought it was Harry. He was kinda invisible. And had pulled her under his invisibility cloak. "Harry!" "SH!" He walked up to a portrait of an obese lady in a pink dress and whispered "tempus fugit!" the portrait hole swung open instantly. Harry threw the cloak off and led Essie to a chair, covering her eyes with is hands. "I wanted this to be a surprise." Harry lifted his hands and Essie saw the cutest little kitten she had ever seen. He was all black, save for one ear, half his tail, and some of his paws, which were all white. It looked like he had been through wet paint and his eyes were green, like Harry's. "Aww! He's adorable!" Harry grinned sheepishly. Ron was right. Girls did go gaga over animals. He was about to roll his eyes when Essie grabbed his face and soundly kissed him on his lips. Essie blushed. "Sorry. I guess I got carried away." She was cut off by Harry's mouth. She felt like the floor was tilting again and grabbed Harry's shoulders. Then, she finally realized that Harry was tilting her back as he held her close; one arm around her upper torso, the other around her waist. GOD, he could kiss. He was so passionate right now. She bet it looked like he was trying to eat her face, no, shoulder, no her -oh never mind. Who cared? Not her, and all she had to do was be at her meeting place with Loki at 9:30.  
  
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Ok. Draco not only LOOKED like a great snog, he WAS a great snog. Yes, Loki and Draco were still at it, 15 minutes later. And still going. Draco had started to nip Loki's pulse point when she realized she needed to meet Ess. She pulled away as he was working his way up to her mouth again. "Draco, darling, I'm sorry, but I've gotta leave." "Why?" "I gotta meet Essie at our rendezvous point, so we can go back to our dorm together." "Oh. OK luv." Draco gave Loki a slow, leisurely good-bye kiss. (Loki felt a melt coming on) and whispered bye before he disappeared. Loki started walking towards the meeting point.  
  
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Essie reluctantly pulled away from Harry's lips. She had to go now. "Harry, I gotta meet Loki now." "Do you really?" "Yes, really" "Good-bye then" said Harry as he gave her one last snoggalicious kiss. "I'll bring your kitten to you tomorrow. You don't want to walk down the halls with him. He might meow." "Good point. Love ya Harry." "Love you, Essence" They kissed each other one last time before Essie left to meet Loki.  
  
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After they met each other, Loki and Essie tiptoed quietly back to their dorm and were about to go in when they heard a: "Just what were you two doing?" Both Loki and Essence winced. Caught. "Answer me girls. What were you do-OOF!" The 'oof' was caused by Loki throwing Essie at Snape. Loki scrambled, quick as hell through the portrait hole. To prevent herself from falling over, Essie grabbed Snape's shoulders and neck. Snape had instinctively put his arms around her waist. Things did NOT look good. "Bloody hell. What was that about?" asked Snape "I have no earthly idea" said Essence (against Snape's chest) Snape tilted her head so that Essie was forced to look him in the eye. "So, what were you doing?" "Uhhh, going to see you?" Snape sighed. "Lei, we have gone over this before. I keep veritserum. I will force feed my veritserum to you. You tell truth. So just tell." "But if I told, you would find out about my obsession with Harry!" she clapped her hands over her mouth. She was definitely going blonder everyday. "Obsession with Harry? Huh? Well, we'll just have to cure that won't we" said Snape, right before he tightened his grip on Essie and put his mouth on hers.  
  
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Whoa. Snape could snog. His mouth was almost a work of art. He wasn't on her mouth anymore. He eyes widened as she felt him on her pulse point. EEP. Professors weren't supposed to be able to kiss like this. Sinfully. But it felt so GOOD. His mouth was on top of hers again. This time, though, his tongue was inside her mouth, too. As one of his hands, inched up to find the bow of her halter-top and started to untie it, she stepped back and pulled away. NONONONONO. Sex with a teacher was VERY bad. She fumbled with the bow. "Here, let me tie it for you" offered Snape "Will you swear you won't UNTIE it?" Snape rolled his eyes. "I swear I won't untie your bloody little halter-top." Essie walked towards him and turned around. Snape tied her bow neatly, then suddenly, put both arms around her waist and pulled her in. She gasped. His mouth was on her pulse point again. After he kissed it he said, "I said I wouldn't untie it, not that I wouldn't kiss you" Essie felt like the world was upside-down. She leaned in, so she wouldn't fall. Mmm. it felt good. But it was so VERY wrong. She raised her arms so that her hands encircled Snape's neck and tried to get him off. Unfortunately, his lips had a death grip on her cheek. Snape was about to tighten his grip around her waist when they heard a *BOOM*. Snape cursed. Peeves. Why did people interrupt when he snogged? "PEEVES!" Yelled Snape. He turned to Essie. "You best get to bed, luv. No detention. In fact, if you were in a house, I'd give you points for a snog well done." Essie blushed. Snape kissed her lightly on the forehead and sprinted off to stop Peeves from destroying anything. Ess headed off to her dorm. No doubt that Loki was there, waiting to hear about snogging Snape.  
  
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Essie slipped quietly into her dorm and into her room. She had just slipped into her cami and her pajama shorts and was about to get a robe when Harry suddenly appeared on her bed with her kitten. Essence jumped nearly a foot in the air. "Harry! I'm in a cami and pj shorts! You should SO not be here!" "Yeah, well, YOU shouldn't be snogging Snape, so I wouldn't be talking if I was you." Essie blushed. So Harry had seen. Well its not like she ran up to Snape and mooshed her lips onto his like a kissing leech. "Look Harry. It only went as far as it wnet cuz Loki threw me at him then Snape was all 'I'll cure your obsession with Harry' and I didn't wanna be cured and then he almost completely undid my halter top and then tied it but attached himself by his lips onto my neck and I was so confused I was dizzy and had to lean on him and grab him to regain balance. And of all people, Peeves saved me." Ess was hysterical. She was crying but laughing. She felt so mixed up. And Harry looked as confused as she was. "Wait," said Harry, holding up his hand, "you have an obsession with ME?" Essie growled in frustration. Was that all he got of her huge long rant? Geez. "Is that all you heard?" "Err, yeah. My brain kinda shut down after you said 'my obsession with Harry'. Don't look so mad please. I get that its not your fault, OK? So I'll just let you finish dressing and go to bed." Essie turned red at that sentence. "NOT with you! Geez! I mean sleeping, not sex!"  
  
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At 7:00 am Loki bounded into Essie's bed chamber with an expectant look on her face. Essie SOOO owed her a gossip fest. Loki wanted to know everything. "Sleeping Snape Snogger, wake up!" Essie groaned. She knew what Loki wanted. "Loki, three reasons: 1., that really didn't sound right. 2, if it weren't for you, I would not have snogged Snape and 3, shut up and go to bed." Loki shook her head. "Uh-uh. You are SO going to tell me what happened." "No I'm not" "Yes you are" "No I'm not" "Yes you are" "Am not" "Are too" "Am not" "Are too-oo!" "OK! FINE! Snape snogged me and my neck! Are you happy? GOD! You know, none of this would have happened if it weren't for you!" "I know. I'm such a genius when it comes to matchmaking." "OH! YOU!" Essie grabbed one of her pillows and threw it at Loki. "What the-?" yelled Loki indignantly. Essie had her wand pointed at Loki. "Lokara Thompson, if you don't shut up right now, I am so gonna use a severing charm to hex your mouth off" Loki shut up and scuttled out. Maybe Ess had PMS or something. No need to get hexed just cuz of Ess being all no snogging and telling. God. Some people could be so temperamental sometimes.  
  
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Since it was Saturday, Essie had no classes. Good. That meant no sizable-snozzed stalker. She needed badly some alcohol. Where was he secret stash of Odgen's Firewhiskey?  
  
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30 minutes later, Loki walked into Essie's room, to borrow a sweater. The minute she walked into the room, she knew something was wrong. There was a very alcoholic smell in the air, and several tissues on the floor, along with an almost empty bottle of whiskey. Essie was lying on her bed, nursing a shot of whiskey. Loki noticed she had a balled up tissue in her hand, and looked like she had been crying. Loki rushed over. "OH MI GOD. Essie? Are you OK? Hell, that was stupid to ask. Oh my god, you never drink. You finished that whole bottle of whiskey? Shit girl. I'm sorry, but no matter how depressed you are over something, you shouldn't get drunk!" Essie looked up at Loki. "Loki, I shouldn'd 'ave snogged Snabe, righd?" Loki shook her head. "Ess? Hello? That is the sorriest reason to get drunk I've ever heard. Granted I've heard quite a few, too."  
  
Essie smiled sadly. "Yeah, I dow. Nodding I ever do ish righd, righd? Hell, I feel eved more debreshed dan I wash BEFORE. I got all alcohol-y. Sho I can'd even get drunk righd." Essie smiled faintly before she passed out on the bed, still holding her shot glass of whiskey. Loki, shook her head. She needed to get help. She gently took the whiskey glass away and tossed it out the window, along with the bottle. She threw away all the tissues and set out to get Harry.  
  
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She found him near the Gryff's dorm "Harry! Harry! O god, need your help. Actually, Ess does-" "WHAT? What happened? Is she OK?" Harry grabbed Loki and shook her. "OW! God, I dunno, she kinda got herself drunk an' she's all depressed about Snape snogging her." "WHAT?"  
  
"Yeah. So, like, I need help. Bring along someone smart you can trust. I need someone who can do the detoxifying charm. And she'll want to see you, when she regains consciousness." "WHAT?"  
  
"Yeah. She passed out from all the whiskey." Harry thought. "Hermione Granger. She's one of my best friends." "Really? She's perfect!" "OK, I'll get her and come over as soon as possible" "HURRY! The password is HGIH fit!" Harry smiled weakly and sprinted off to find Hermione.  
  
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10 minutes later, Harry and Hermione stepped into Loki and Essie's dorm. Loki greeted them. "Hey guys. Essie's room is this way." Harry and Hermione followed Loki. Hermione was all nervous. Getting drunk was against school rules. They stepped inside Essie's room.Harry gulped audibly. Essie looked like she wasn't Essie. Hermione stepped up next to her. "How much did she drink?" she asked Loki. "Almost a whole bottle." Hermione's eyes widened. This would be messier than she thought. "I need a BIG glass then" Loki nodded. He went and got one of the coffee mugs she had in her room for decoration. Hermione grabbed the mug and pointed her wand at Essie. "Detoxidus alcoholian!" ha huge stream of liquid flowed out of a vein in one of Essie's wrists. Hermione deftly caught it with the mug. When it started to overflow, Loki got another one. It filled 3c mugs in all. "Whoa" murmured Harry. No wonder Essie was unconscious. "Do you want to talk to her?" asked Hermione. Harry nodded. "Enervate," murmured Hermione. Essie blinked and sat up. She saw Harry, Loki and Hermione and flung her arms around Harry and started sobbing. Loki and Hermione quietly left the room.  
  
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"OH GOD Harry, I didn't mean to snog Snape he just forced me to snog him both times but I liked it which is so AWFUL and I love you Harry. Not him. He's so weird but I don't want to snog him EVER again even if it gets me out of trouble." "Sh, sh," whispered Harry, comfortingly. "I don't care about that. I care about you. You didn't have to get all drunk. You could have just told me. And about Snape? Honestly I think he's weird too. But you can just TALK to me if you're confused, I love you enough so that I'll listen and help, not listen and critique." "Really?" whispered Essie "Really. I thought you knew that by now." "Oh Harry!" Essie threw her arms around him again. Harry was so comforting. "Harry?" "Yes?" "Just hold me for right now. That's all I want for the moment."  
  
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Thanks to Risquer for actually reading this fic. So if you are not Risquer or if you are her please review. Thankee much! 


	5. Things get 'Harry'

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this fic except for Essie, Loki, and a couple of very minor Ravenclaw quidditch players and that really, really minor Slytherin chaser.  
  
~Fic starts here~  
  
Loki was so psyched. Yes! Finally a chance to FINALLY show Draco how good at quidditch she was. Yeah, she heard Draco was good, but guess what? She was SO totally better.  
  
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The day was really clear and cold. Loki was all hyper. NOT a good thing. In potions class she ended up adding 10 cups of narcissus roots instead of one to her self hate serum. And it exploded on Snape. The result? Yeah, Snape was even more of narcissist (an: that's a person who really, REALLY loves themselves a whole huge bunch). Oh well.at least Ess was happy. Snape being a narcissist meant no checking Ess out.  
  
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Finally, it was time for quidditch. Good thing too, because Loki was bouncing off the walls. Literally. She was leaping and jumping and God knows what. Because she was playing Slytherin. Ha-ha. She was so in her Lokiblaster mood right now. Uh-oh. Essie was shooting her these 'shut up or I'll hit you looks.' Best shut up. Essie could hit HARD.  
  
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Loki was soaring through the air, occasionally hitting a bludger. Wait. What was she doing? She needed to get her rear into gear. Bludger? Oh here was one. She smacked it right at a Slytherin who was about to score. Ha ha. She'd like to see him score with a broken arm. "and beater Lokara Thompson breaks Slytherin chaser Edward Selien's arm, preventing him from scoring. Good. It's high time she put her habit or breaking things to good use." "HEY!" yelled Loki. Geez. It just had to be Snape commentating, right? Holy smokes! Essie and Draco were diving! Had they seen the snitch already? GOD! That was fast! Best help Essie. God. She could not believe she was actually gonna intentionally break Draco's nose. Here goes nothing she thought. *CRACK*. The bludger connected solidly with her club. *WHAM* it bashed into Draco's head just as Essie grabbed the snitch. "And Ravenclaw wins, 210 points to 0, with the fastest match in Hogwarts history" yelled Snape. Loki would have bet 10 galleons Snape was really pouting right now. OH MI GOD! Draco was lying flat on the ground! NOO! She did NOT just kill her boyfriend. She flew down and ran up to him. "Draco, Draco, speak sweetie!" Draco just lay there. "OH MY GOD!" Loki didn't know what to do. Was mouth-to-mouth only for drowning? Oh well. She stuck her mouth on his and started to TRY (an: try is the key word there ;p) to revive him when-Draco's arms went around her and pulled her down on top of him. "What the?" Loki was once again cut off my Draco's mouthy. Draco had rolled on top of her and was kissing. Rather passionately. "Scared you, didn't I" said Draco smugly "Yeah."  
  
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After the game, everyone went straight to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast. Loki was just getting congratulated by Harry when a vision hit her. Hard. .she saw Hogwarts engulfed in a column of flame. She would have screamed, but a piece of cloth was rammed down her throat. She was crying. Not for the building, but for the people, dying a fiery death inside. She briefly saw an inside view of the castle: Hermione Granger was burning to death. She looked up in horror to see Harry imprisoned in the air by ribbons of red magic, coming from the wands of what must be deatheaters. The magic pulsed with a painful current. Harry's yells were ones of pure pain as every few seconds the pulsation of the ribbons delivered a fresh shock. She started to collapse. She couldn't breath through the piece of cloth shoved down her throat.  
  
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Harry watched in shock as Loki froze right in the middle of the Great Hall. Her mouth was open in a soundless scream, and silent tears were running down her face. She started to crumble to the ground. Harry caught her just in time. He gasped as he found himself in the same vision as Loki.  
  
He was being held in the air by ribbons of crimson magic.ribbons that pulsated with what felt like a monstrous voltage of electricity. He yelled in pain as one of them crackled on his skin. He could fell and smell his skin burning. The rest of the Great Hall watched in shock as both Harry and Loki crumbled to the ground in pain.  
  
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Loki woke up in the hospital wing. Essie was sitting next to her. "Essie" "Are you all right, Loki?" "Essie. I saw it. The future. What may be. Hogwarts engulfed in a pillar of flames, as people inside suffered a painful, fiery death. Harry imprisoned by blood-red bonds that pulsed with a magical current. One that burned. Harry imprisoned by deatheaters.oh Essie, I don't know what this means." Essie took Loki in her arms and rocked her, comfortingly, like a mother does to her child. "Sh, Sh, sleep now. You must rest. Everything will be fine." Harry, in the next bed, though, wasn't quite sure. He fingered the black chain of burns on his arm, burns that were in exact shape of the dark mark. They were exactly where the bonds had held him.  
  
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The next day, Loki walked around in a daze, taking great care to avoid all candles. It was the aftershock of her vision. She noticed people kept staring at her like she was going to fall to the ground and have a seizure or something. Draco was very supportive, though. Actually, he kept snogging her a lot. Which was what Loki wanted.  
  
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Essie noticed Loki walking carefully around fires and candles. She supposed that after seeing the whole pillars of flames thing, Loki was all freaked out about someone setting the school on fire. She thought Loki would faint when she saw all the cauldron fires for potions. So Essie had a word with Snape. He assigned Loki the task or organizing his supplies cabinet. Snape told Loki he really didn't want her blowing anything up. Loki shrugged. At least she didn't have to go near all those fires. She vaguely heard Snape tell her to organizes them by powers of concentration (what the hell was that?) but ended up stacking them by color. Who knows? Maybe that's what he meant. She was jolted from her spectrum daze (does brown go at the end of the spectrum or the beginning?) by Snape's yelling. "Stupid girl! I said powers of concentration! NOT color-coding! Can't you do ANYTHING right?" Loki looked around. Oh. He was talking to her. "Well, this way, it's prettier. See, the reds are here, then the yellows, then the greens. Where do you want the browns? At the beginning or the end?" Snape's nostrils fared. Pretty? PRETTY? GOD! he had told her by powers of concentration. He had even written them on the containers!" "Stupid girl. Don't you even know what powers of concentration is? It's-" "A number, 1 through 10, assigned to a substance, depending on how potent a gram of it is mixed with water. 1 being the lowest, 10 being the highest. Veritaserum is the only known 10. Another name for the scale is the Potency Powers, which is what the rest of the world calls it. I'd think you would know that." Essie looked smugly at Snape as his normally pale face turned a lobster red and his nostrils slowly enlarged. His hands started to curl into fists. "OOH! THAT's what you meant! You should've said so!" piped Loki. Snape growled. Really growled. And shoved Essie out of the potions dungeon and followed her, slamming the door.  
  
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They were alone in the hallway. Snape was leering over Essie. She was actually scared now. "Uhh, got something up your nose, Snapers? Cuz your nostrils are big enough." "ARRGH!" yelled Snape as he pressed Essie against the wall, "refrain from your smart-arsed comments, Lei. Or I shall be forced to-" "Expel me?" "-Kiss you" "OK. I'll shut up now." "Oh? I'm that bad?" "No. You're that old." "Oh?" "Yeah. And if you say one more 'oh' I am so gonna-" "Slam me? That would get you detention, Miss Lei" "So? I really don't give a damn, Mr. Know-it-all-but-not-really!" "Oh?" *SLAP*. Essie's palm connected soundly with Snape's cheek. Oh shit. She had so not done that. there was a red mark on Snape's cheek. She was in major trouble now. Snape grabbed her hand and held it against the wall. He leaned in. "Your total lack of respect is notable in your actions, Lei" hissed Snape, "and my total disregard of personal space is evident in mine." He leaned even closer and kissed Essie.  
  
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Meanwhile, in the potions dungeon, Draco was throwing an indignant fit. "Snape should be sacked! He had absolutely no right to get on your case, Loki! Just because of you not knowing what he meant! Seriously-" "Draco, darling, please be quiet. Snape just forgot about the different name the rest of the world gives the Powers of Concentration Scale" "NO! he didn't! he must not have known, the slimy old-" "Draco, do shut up. I like that you get indignant on my part, but-" "But what? I should have my father sack him, if he didn't know the-" Loki cut him off with her mouth. Sometimes it was the only way to shut a guy up.  
  
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The next class they had was Divination. Loki sighed. Lovely. Another session with the stuffy old bat. She walked into the class and sat down between Harry and Draco. Trelawney breezed in. "Ah, yes, my class. We will begin our review of crystal ball gazing today. Just take one of the balls in the center of your table dears. Oh, and someone grab Neville's for him. He'll drop his if he holds his-" *CRASH*. Too late. Neville had already dropped one. Trelawney had a smug look on her face. Loki rolled her eyes. So Neville had broken something. Well, God, he broke everything. Any normal person could tell that. She looked down at her ball. Well. There were 3 chips, a scratch, and finger-smudges decorated the entire surface. Lovely. How was she supposed to See anything when she couldn't see the mist inside her crystal? Oh well. She cleared her mind and gazed into her ball. Oh God, please not again. Not this vision again. .She turned herself around, or tired to. Her ankles and hands were tied. She gasped as she saw a masked deatheater repeatedly beat Essie. She saw a taller one, suddenly come up and kick the one who was beating Ess. Why was he stopping Essie's beating? The first deatheater crumbled to the ground and started to grovel. "Master, master, I was only doing what I thought right." "What you thought was wrong, Wormtail." Master? Oh shit. The tall guy had to be Voldemort. What was he saying?. "We need this one to bait Potter. Oh dear God. NO. "The other one we need to see our future. I want them both undamaged. The one you struck down could have killed you in a flash. Can't you fell her power?" What? Loki's eyes were reflecting the flames in her vision. She grabbed Harry's hand. "Harry. You must destroy Him. He is even stronger then before. He will not stop until he kills you and your brethren. He must be vanquished. He sows evil, not good, hate, not love, despair, not hope. His evil is as dark as midnight. Harry, he sows our DEATH!" Harry gasped. For a second, he saw Loki's vision. Loki started to crumble to the ground. Harry caught her and immediately fell into a faint from all the pain he felt from her vision.  
  
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After Loki and Harry collapsed on the ground, all hell broke loose in the classroom. Trelawney was trying to revive Loki and Harry to see if she "could help Loki see further". Seamus Finnigan was poised to run from Madam Pomfrey. Draco was trying to get Trelawney off Loki, and Lavendar Brown and Parvati Patil were trying to see if THEY could see anymore of Loki's vision. Essie had had enough. She climbed on top of the table that Loki had been sitting at. "QUIET EVERYONE!" Everyone shut up. "Now, please listen to my directions-" "Miss Lei, I am the teacher here-" "Ah, yes, professor, but I have more experience with Loki's visions. She won't be able to see more. She'll be too worn down. Yes Seamus, please get Madam Pomfrey and aske for stretchers. Draco, go down to the Potions dungeon. Ask Snape for a sleeping potion that will also prevent dreams. I don't want Harry or Loki getting nightmares. If he gets all sneery, tell him I asked for it. No Lavendar, her vision is through. She won't be able to See more, so neither would you. Hermione, help me get Lok and Harry more comfortable with some of those pillows. Yes professor, I know what I'm doing" said Essie as Trelawney opened her mouth, "and no, I can't read minds. Is that Seamus? Good. OK, Ron, and Hermione, help me lift them into the stretchers, careful. I don't want them being jolted. And Crabbe, go down to the dungeons to tell Snape to bring the potion to the infirmary."  
  
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After Essie had seen Loki and Harry to the Infirmary, she dashed off the History of Magic. Pomfrey had assured her that both Harry and Loki would be fine. Essie planned to come to check on them and the end of the day.  
  
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Well? What are you waiting for? REVIEW!!!! So far, Risquer is the only reviewer! Actually, come to think of it, she's prolly the only reader so far. But oh well. REVIEW!!! 


	6. Snow Angels and Shockers

Disclaimer-I own none of the characters in this fic except for Essie, Loki, and a couple of very minor Ravenclaw and Slytherin people.  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
History of Magic Class.ah what could be said? Umm.anything interesting about it is history, thought Essie. (an: Merlin help me.I actually LIKE puns like this ;p) She settled down in her normal seat and prepared to take notes and sleep at the same time. She vaguely got that Binns was talking about all the famous family trees.what? Oh. Homework assignment. "Your homework assignment is to use the ancestor spell, ancestralus de mi, to come up with your family tree. The tree must be at least four generations. To do so, simply hold your wand and say 'ancestralus de mi' clearly. A slight, ghostly image of the generation before you, or your parents, will come up. Any siblings you have will come up too. The images should be accompanied by their respective names. To get further generations, just repeat the incantation. I want a family tree turned in by tomorrow-no exceptions. Class dismissed" Essie was in awe. How had he done that? The whole big speech was in a monotone.she couldn't even manage a sentence without some expression in it. The whole class sighed in relief. Class over. As Essie was getting up to leave, Ron and Hermione ran up to her. "Essie, is Harry OK?" asked Ron "Umm, I guess. Pomfrey said they were both fine." "Oh good." "Yeah" There was a brief silence before Ron asked, "So, did Harry ask you to the Yule Ball yet?" "Yule Ball?" Essie was so confused. "Err yeah.OW!" Hermione had just smacked him "Oh Ron, she meant for you to explain! How can she tell you if she doesn't even know what the Yule Ball is?" Hermione turned to Essie, "I'm sorry. Usually he isn't this dense. Close, but not quite. The Yule Ball's like a dance. Very formal. The guys have to ask the girls. It's on Christmas night. This year, I heard we could wear muggle clothes." "Really? That's cool. No Ron, Harry has not asked me yet, but I'm sure he will. Yule Ball? I hadn't even heard about it." They walked back to their respective dorms. Essie had the rest of the day off.Yule Ball?  
  
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Essie had just come back from the Hospital wing. Both Harry and Loki were fine. She decided to get started on her family tree. "Ancestralus de mi!" instantly, an image of her mother, father, and sister whooshed out of her wand, accompanied by their names. Essie got tears in her eyes. She really missed them. She wrote down her mom (Josephine Lei), her dad (Christopher Lei) and her sister (Issel Lei) and moved on. "Ancestralus de mi!" her grandmother and grandfather on her mother's side popped up. She wrote down their names too. One last time she called "ancestralus de mi" but instead of her great-grandmother and great-grandfather, someone else popped up. Oh. So she had a great-uncle. What? No one had told her about him? His name was-wait his name was changing.what? Oh my god. Essie tumbled to the floor in a dead faint as her ancestors disappeared.  
  
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The next day, Essie woke up on the floor. Huh? Oh. She had fainted. Cuz of her ancestors. Or one of them, to be more specific (an: no, I am NOT going to tell you who that was ;p) huh? Who was knocking on the door? She got up and dragged herself to the portrait hole. EEP! What was Harry doing here? "Harry!" screeched Ess "Yeah, I'm doing fine, thank you." Quipped Harry. He grinned. She was so funny. "Harry! I'm no dressed! I just woke up! My hair is frizzing and I haven't taken a shower yet!" "So? You look fine." "That's not the point. it's too early! What time is it? Where's my watch-" "It's 12:30. pm." "WHAT?!" "Yeah. So, umm, I thought you'd be up by now." "O GOD. Essie covered her face with her hands. "Look. Why don't you come in. I'll go take a shower-" Harry's face reddened. "ALONE, pervert. I'll go with you to lunch, 'K? 'K. Right. Come in." Harry stepped into the dormitory. Essie showed him into the living room and went into the bathroom to shower.  
  
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When she got out, she felt all refreshed. She felt WAY better. As she walked back to the living room, she just remembered WHY she had fainted. Crudders.  
  
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"So, Harry, I heard there was gonna be a Yule Ball." They were in the Great Hall. Harry choked violently on his pumpkin juice. After he stopped coughing he almost slapped himself. How had he forgotten? "God. Sorry. I can't BELIEVE I forgot.but will you go with me?" he prayed that she would say yes. "Yeah, sure. So give me some info.like what genius came up with the name 'Yule Ball'?"  
  
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Wondering where Loki was? DUH! Where else would she be? She was with DRACO! They were walking outside. It was beautiful. There was about 4 inches of snow on the ground and Hogwarts looked like a gingerbread castle complete with snow for icing. Draco and Loki were just walking, getting in an occasional kiss, when Loki randomly flopped to the ground. "Wha-? Loki? Loki? Please tell me you aren't having-" "A vision? Nope. Hello? Haven't you ever seen anyone make a snow angel before? "A what? A snow angel! Geez. Did you have a really deprived childhood or something? See-you flop to the ground and you spread your arms and legs out and move them side-ways and see!" Loki jumped up and faced Draco "All pretty. Best snow angel I ever ma- WHOA!" Draco had just tackled her and both had fallen into Loki's angel imprint. "I think I would prefer snogging to making snow angels, Lokara" purred Draco "Oh? But don't you think my angel's pretty-" He cut her off with a serious kiss. When they were through, Draco pulled Loki up and helped dust all the snow off her. "Yes, Loki, I think your angel's pretty. She's not the only angel I see, though." "What?"  
  
"I think my Loki-angel is far sexier and prettier than her snow- imprinted counterpart." Loki smiled. Draco was so sweet. She leaned against him as they walked back to the Great Hall, hand in hand.  
  
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Yeah.I know.this chapter is super short.but it sets the stage for the ending.ok, do I have, like, one reader, literally, or do I actually have more? Hello? Review me, please. My self-esteem is way down. I need to know if I actually have readers, not a reader.I know my sister gave the web addy to loads of her friends.please review this? PLEASE? I really want to know if I suck or not.think of it as a favor to my sister. 


	7. Essie and Loki finally meet Hermione and...

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this fic besides Essie, Loki, and a couple of very minor characters in Ravenclaw and Slytherin.  
  
~Fic Starts here~  
  
Essie and Loki were up talking. At 3:00 am.  
  
"So, has Draco asked you to the Yule Ball thingie yet?"  
  
Loki looked at Essie blankly.  
  
"The Dance thingie"  
  
"What? Oh. Yeah. He asked me yesterday. Right after I woke up. Did you know the potion Snape gave me conked me out for three whole hours. THREE. Three hours, for Ptolemy's sake.  
  
"Err."  
  
"-and Draco stayed by me the whole time."  
  
"And you know this because?"  
  
"Umm, I faked an extra hour."  
  
"And?"  
  
"And Pomfrey told him to get out, 'cos it didn't look like I was gonna get up."  
  
"And?"  
  
"And then I woke up."  
  
"OK."  
  
"Yeah. So Draco asked me. Why?"  
  
"I was thinking of having a sort of slumber party cum makeover party thingie.we could invite a couple of gals.do makeovers and junk."  
  
"OOH! Kewl idea!"  
  
"Yeah. But who do we invite?"  
  
Loki sat thoughtfully for a minute. "Well, how about Hermione Granger?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"You know, the class smart-ass"  
  
"OH! Right!"  
  
"Yeah. She's the one who detoxed you."  
  
"Oh."  
  
".so I think we owe her something."  
  
"Right."  
  
"Who's she going with, though?"  
  
Loki paused. "You know, I have no idea."  
  
Essie thought. "You know, she's probably going with that Ron guy."  
  
"What Ron guy?"  
  
"The red-haired, ginger, Ron guy."  
  
"OH! THAT Ron guy."  
  
"Err.yeah. I don't know though. We should probably ask her first.even if they flirt nonstop."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Ok. So we're prolly gonna ask Hermione.who else?"  
  
"Umm, how about Ginny Weasley?" Essie suggested  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Ginny Weasley. You know, the girl who you burst both of the bludgers with."  
  
"OH!! HER!! Yeah," Loki nodded, "She seemed pretty cool. Is she goin' with anyone?"  
  
"I dunno."  
  
"Oh. Well, we can ask her too."  
  
"Yeah.we can ask them tomorrow."  
  
"Yeah.g'nite Loki"  
  
"'night Ess."  
  
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The next day, Essie ran up to Hermione in the hallway.  
  
"Hey! Hermione! Wait up!!"  
  
Hermione turned around curiously. What would the American girl want with her?  
  
"Hi Essie."  
  
"Hey. Um, so Ron's asked you to the Yule Ball thingie, right?"  
  
"WHAT?" Hermione wheeled around and faced Essie, "What in Ptolemy's name gave you THAT idea?"  
  
"Umm, aren't you going out with him?"  
  
"WHAT? HECK NO!"  
  
"Really? Cuz it looks like he's eating out of the palm of your hand.or he really WANTS to"  
  
Hermione blushed. Ron? Ron Weasley? Well, yes, she might have a teensy-weensy, itty, bitty.oh hell.FULL-BLOWN, elephantine crush on him.  
  
"Umm, really?"  
  
"Yeah. I say you should, like, totally get to know him.you know, in a sexual kind of way."  
  
Hermione blushed even brighter.  
  
Essie grinned. She SO knew there was more to Hermione than the conservative, grade-conscious schoolgirl. She and Loki would just have to bring the other Hermione out. "So, umm, do you want to come to this sleepover, slumber party thingie that Loki and I are giving? We're doing makeovers."  
  
Hermione considered. What did she have to lose? She nodded.  
  
"Good. Meet us at our dorm at 8:OO. The password's HGIH fit and the portrait's the lady knight and the chimera thingie."  
  
Hermione nodded again. She was actually looking forward to it.  
  
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Loki chased Ginny Weasley down the hall. "Yo Ginny!"  
  
"Huh? Oh, hi Loki"  
  
"Hey. Umm, so who are you going to the ball with?"  
  
Ginny blushed. That was NOT what she had expected. Oh wel, she had to tell SOMEONE. Otherwise, she would burst. "Umm, I'm going with.er"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Umm, oliverwood" she spilled out  
  
"Who? Liver could? What?"  
  
"No! Ol-Oliver Wood. you know the assistant to Madam Hooch."  
  
"OH! Him! Whoa. He's HOT. Hold on.how old is he? Like 20?"  
  
"Umm, yeah"  
  
"Dang girl. Even I can't get a 20 year old guy and I'm a year older than you"  
  
"Oh gosh! It's not like that! He just asked me cos we're such good friends, and he's been showing me beaters moves and.well yes. He's hot"  
  
"So.why not let Oliver think you're hot too?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Yeah. You wanna come to this slumber party makeover bash thingie that Essie and I are doing?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"OK. Meet us at 8:00 at our dorms, the portrait of the lady knight and the chimera.password's HGIH fit"  
  
"OK"  
  
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Hermione and Ginny both were at Loki and Essie' dorm at 8:00 sharp. Ginny was carrying her extremely large makeup case and her sleeping bag, but Hermione only had her sleeping bag. Ginny looked curiously at Hermione. Where was her makeup?  
  
"Hey you guys!" said Loki, bounding in, "Hey Gin! Yay! More makeup! Cool makeup case by the way. Oh, Hermione, why didn't you bring yours? I promise me and Ess don't have cooties.actually I'm not so sure about Ess.all that snogging with Snape might have given her something contagious."  
  
"HEY!" yelled Essie, who was right behind Loki, "that was SO nice Loks. Way to blurt out about me being forced to kiss the elephant nosed man.BECAUSE YOU PUSHED ME INTO HIM!!!!"  
  
Loki shrugged. "So, why didn't you bring your makeup?" she asked again.  
  
Hermione was turning red, fast. She might as well tell now. "Because I don't have any."  
  
Everyone stared at her. Loki finally piped up, "well, we'll just have to cure you of that."  
  
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The next day, Essie and Loki had DADA first, with the sixth year Gryffindors. They slowly strolled into class, wanting to delay a meeting with Moody as much as possible. Fortunately, he wasn't there yet. They were walking with a new and improved Hermione in the hall. She hadn't shown anyone her new look, because her and Ginny had opted for breakfast in Loki and Essie's dorm.  
  
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Essie and Loki took their normal seats, just waiting for someone to notice. They didn't have to wait long.  
  
"HERMIONE?" yelled Ron, "Is that YOU?"  
  
Hermione blushed, making herself even prettier. "OF COURSE it's me Ron. What OTHER girl sits next to you everyday?"  
  
"But-but-but" stuttered Ron, "Y-your hair's all sm-smooth and your clothes are dif-different and-and you've got, HOLY CRICKET! You've got MAKEUP on!"  
  
Hermione crossed her arms across the black tube-top Essie had leant her. Geez. Now EVERYONE was staring. "Keep it DOWN Ron" hissed Hermione.  
  
"But-But"  
  
"BUT SHUT UP!"  
  
"R-right" Ron sat back in his chair, but kept glancing at Hermione kinda nervously and turned-on-y  
  
Essie wanted to seriously crack up. 


	8. Question and Answer, or the Gorgeous New...

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this fic besides Essie, Loki, and (cue the lights and camera) INTRODUCING the Professor Anyanka Draca.  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
The whole class heard someone walk into the room. Expecting Moody, the girls all crossed their arms in front of their chests and pulled their skirts down. Instead, they got a huge surprise. A tall, auburn-haired woman walked into the class.  
  
The boy's jaws all dropped. She was GORGEOUS. Her hair, down to her waist, was in natural ringlets. She had beautiful green-tinted hazel eyes. Her build was like a model's, all tall and curvy. She must have been about 5'8. Her un-blemished skin was a creamy ivory, except for her pink- tinted cheeks. She had the lightest touch of green eye shadow, which accented her eyes. All the guys were staring. Well, all except Draco, Harry, and Ron. Draco was busy nuzzling Loki's neck. Harry was busy whispering/licking Essie's ear. Ron was kind of staring, but he kept looking at Hermione's tube-top. The new teacher raised an eyebrow at their antics and held up a seating chart.  
  
"Hello. I am Professor Anyanka Draca." She said crisply, "I am here to replace Mr. Alastor Moody as the Defense Against Dark Arts professor, seeing as there were innumerable complaints of his usage of his magical eye inappropriately." She waited for all the giggles to stop before she went on. "I trust we will get to know each other well this year." She winked at Dean Thomas, whose mouth was hanging open the widest. "I'm going to pass this seating chart around. Please fill in your name where you are sitting so that I can easily tell who you are." She handed the piece of parchment to Lavendar Brown. "Now," she said, hopping onto the desk and crossing her legs, "I'm going ask a question to each one of you. You in turn, will answer it, after giving me your name, and you will ask ME a question, in order to get to know each other better. Now, who's first?"  
  
All the guys in the class were staring because of two reasons: 1., crossing her legs hiked up the skirt she was wearing, and 2., she had no shoes on. Just her bare feet. Well, just was the wrong word. They were very pretty feet. And the toes were shiny from clear nail polish. Dean Thomas raised his hand, his mouth still wide open.  
  
"Yes? Who are you?" the professor inquired, "Oh, wait, hold on." She stretched her arms out and lightly shut Dean and Seamus Finnigan's mouths. "There. With all the small, venomous things we'll be working with, it's best you keep your mouth shut. I wouldn't want something poisonous flying in." she winked again. Instantly, all the mouths clamped shut, like oysters.  
  
"Now, continue please," she said, directing her question to Dean. "What's your name, boy?"  
  
"D-dean Thomas"  
  
"Well, is there something about me that's making you nervous?"  
  
"N-no. not other than the fact that you're very beautiful."  
  
Dean reddened. Draca just raised an eyebrow and leaned back on the palms of her hands, against her desk, still keeping her legs crossed. "Well. Thank you Mr. Thomas. Do you have a question for me?"  
  
"W-will you marry me?" he asked, reddening even more.  
  
"Um, get to know me better before you ask that again," she laughed, "because right now, I'd have to say now, despite how cute you are."  
  
Dean turned a dangerous shade of red and looked down at his desk.  
  
"Now." Said Professor Draca, "Who's next?" Several hands shot up.  
  
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As Professor Draca dismissed class, students were laughing hard at all the kinds of questions that had been asked. For the boys, they ranged from Dean's "will you marry me" to Neville's "will you take points off if I'm being stupid, but not on purpose". The girls ranged from Parvati's "how old are you" (an: 25) to Hermione's "how many years have you been teaching" (an: 5) to Lavendar's "Do you have a boyfriend?" (an: no. she's just broken up). The boys loved her already for her marvelous looks and the girls were warming up to her for her snappy comebacks.  
  
Anya Draca checked her schedule. She didn't have another class for a couple of hours. She decided to go to the staff room and meet the other teachers. As she walked out, she consulted her map. OK. Turn right, then right, then-"OOF". She had walked right into someone and had promptly fallen on her butt. Ow. Those stones HURT. She looked up to see a hook- nosed man with long black hair (kind of the greasy variety, but not quite) that was pulled into a ponytail. He was leering over her. And what? Oh shitfulness. Her skirt had ridden up almost to her crotch. She tugged it down as the guy's smirk widened.  
  
"Err, who are you?" she asked. Well, the guy was kinda hot. In an evil sort of way.  
  
"Professor Severus Snape," he said silkily, "and you are"  
  
"Professor Anyanka Draca"  
  
"Ah." Snape reached down to pluck a paper from the ground that was, coincidentally, close to Professor Draca's leg. "May I help you?" he said smoothly. This new professor was gorgeous.  
  
"No, you may NOT." Anya Draca slapped his hand away, noting the surprise in his face. "I like to take care of my own private papers, thanks." She gathered her papers with a summoning charm.  
  
Snape finally noticed her bare feet. Well. Even sexier but, "You might not want to walk around without shoes, professor," he suggested, "You might.step on something." He raised his eyebrows.  
  
Draca dusted herself off and organized her papers. As she was doing so, she retorted, "Well, you might not want to reach so close to my legs, Severus," she said coolly, a smirk on her face, "you might get slapped."  
  
She walked away quickly. As she reached an intersection, she turned around slightly and made a closing motion with her hand. All the boys watching her immediately shut their mouths.  
  
Snape smirked. How charming.  
  
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AN: I KNOW that Snape is supposed to be in love with Essie, but let me have my fun. And please review. 


	9. gasp :0 Snape has a new love interest

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this fic besides Essie, Loki, professor Anyanka Draca, and a couple of very minor people in Ravenclaw and Slytherin.  
  
~Fic starts here~  
  
She was having loads of fun meeting all the other professors. So far, her favorite was Professor Vector, the Arithmancy teacher was her favorite. He was so clever and rather funny, in a dry, sarcastic way. She also liked (of course) Albus Dumbledore. He had all ready asked her to call him Albus. She was laughing over something he had said, when Snape walked in. She looked up sharply. Whoa. He was all glare-y and conceited- ish looking. Why? Suddenly, he strode over to her. Uh-oh. DANGER, DANGER.  
  
"I don't think we've been properly introduced," he said, looking straight into her eyes. She blinked. How had he done that? It felt like he had glanced straight at her soul. She shook her head slightly. There was NO WAY he was going to freak her out. She looked straight back. "Oh yes we have, Professor Snape." She replied crisply, "If I don't recall, didn't you introduce yourself to me, right before you reached for my LEGS?" She smirked. He was SO going to get it now.  
  
Snape turned bright red. He hadn't TRIED to touch her leg. The paper had just been the first one he saw. Before he knew what he was doing, he raised her hand to his lips and replied softly, "True, true . please accept my humblest apologies . it was very inappropriate of me to get that close to your person-no matter how unintentional it was." (an: I know what you're thinking-what IS it with Slytherins and hand kissing? ;p)  
  
Anya rolled her eyes. This guy was starting to sound all Jane Austen-ish. It was getting bloody annoying. She tugged her hand away. "And it was even more inappropriate to kiss me when it was not wanted, no matter where you placed your lips." She smirked at Snape, waved good-bye to Vector, nodded to all the other teachers, and went off. And much to the amusement of all of the professors, Severus Snape followed her.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Anya had just walked a few feet before she realized someone was following her. She turned around. Oh. Him.  
  
"Well? What do YOU want?"  
  
He looked at her. Good God. She was gorgeous.  
  
"Well?"  
  
He stared at her. Again. He was, for once in his life, speechless. "I-I- I ."  
  
She smirked. That was all it took.  
  
He strode up to her and pressed his lips onto her mouth, knowing all the while how stupid it was to do so.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
She was so shocked she didn't move at first. Then she realized she kinda liked it. Sure, the guy was a perv, but at least he could KISS. The last perv she met couldn't kiss. Or he COULD, just very badly. This guy was different. What his mouth was doing was sending shivers down her spine. Actually, his hands were doing a lot of the sending too. But that was probably because they were actually ON her spine.  
  
She knew instantly that what they were doing was wrong, that what HE was doing was wrong, but she didn't care. Well, OK. So she cared. But it wasn't like she could stop now. Not when he was deepening the kiss and pulling her closer. Very close. OK. WAY too close. She SO did NOT have to be pressed against what she was being pressed against right now. (an: I KNOW. Gag all you want). She pulled away. And slapped him across his face. The NERVE of him! "You perverted, nasally endowed, greasy-haired loser!" she yelled right in his face before stomping off in a rage.  
  
Snape rubbed the spot where she had slapped him and smirked. Well. At least he knew she had liked it.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
AN: Yes, yes, Snape just MIGHT be getting a new love interest.keep reading!!! And thank you to all the wonderful people who reviewed me, that was great. Please review some more! And if you haven't, what ARE you waiting for? REVIEW!!! 


	10. Oliver in a Twist

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this fic besides Essie, Loki, and professor Anyanka Draca.  
  
AN: I might have to start putting my authors notes right at the beginning. Sorry for all you eager-to-read people. There are just some things that I need to say that I usually forget when I get to the end. For instance, MFCA??? Me? MOI? Blab about sex? And NOTHING?? No. that's Loki. Not me. And the real Lioness sure as HELL does not do that. That's for all those hormonally-charged people who like a good laugh. See? Hint, hint, supposed to be FUNNY? Oh, never mind. Maybe I DO babble too much about sex. But oh well. OK? Don't read it if you really don't like sex-related conversations and graphically superb snogging scenes or some spontaneous, expletive cussing. But no sex. Absolutely no sex. This is a pg-13 fic. Not r. hello? A thirteen-year-old could SO handle this. OK. Sorry for the huge-ass rant at the beginning.  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
Ginny was about to head out to the quidditch pitch. It was dusk. It was time for her nightly session with Oliver. (an: don't even THINK about what that could mean!). she grabbed her broom on the way out of the Gryffindor Common Room and set out to meet Oliver.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
She stopped in front of a mirror in one of the halls. Did she look OK? Loki had done a growth spell on her normally short hair. It was now down to her waist. She had pulled it in a messy, but bump-free bun. All her freckles were gone, it being mid-November, and she had on some brown- tinted red lipstick. She decided she looked fine enough.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Oliver was waiting for her on the quidditch pitch. Ginny swallowed. DAMN. He looked HOT. He was wearing a thin t-shirt (an: he's not crazy, the temp. is supposed to about 65) and a pair of soccer shorts. Ginny could SEE the muscles in his shoulders through the thin shirt. She could even make out his six-pack.  
  
"Hey Oliver!"  
  
Oliver looked up. "Oh, hi Gin-Bloody HELL!" WHOA. He had NO IDEA that little Ginny could look like this. Sure, he had asked her to the ball, but only because he wanted a friend, not some girl with high expectations. He gulped. Screw the no expectations on his part. Her hair was longer. He could tell. Sure, it was in a bun, but hell, before Ginny's hair was too short to fit in a bun. Her lips-wait-Ginny Weasley with MAKEUP?? And shit, it looked good. He suddenly noticed what she was wearing. A sports bra. Good God. She was wearing a sports bra. And not any sports bra, but a BLACK sports bra. And eensy running shorts. Wasn't she cold? Sure, it was warm for winter, but not that warm. He suddenly realized what pretty eyes Ginny Weasley had. All huge and brown. And soft. They looked so soft, like they wouldn't see anything bad. WHOA. Ginny Weasley didn't have a boyfriend? Why the hell not?  
  
Oliver was staring at her. His mouth was resembling a fish's. Ginny was getting nervous. Did she have a monstrous zit or something? She hadn't SEEN one. But you never could tell.  
  
"Um, Oliver? Is something wrong?"  
  
"What? Oh HELL no Ginny . you-you just look very nice right now." He blushed and busied himself with the quidditch supplies he had brought.  
  
"OK, Ginny, today we're gonna work on improving your grip of the beater's club today." (an: no matter how perverted that sounded, there is NO NEED for all that snickering ;0) he showed her how to hold the beaters club.  
  
"See? Like this . your fingers should fit into the ridges (an: see note above) and be comfortable enough. Tight enough so you can hit hard, but loose enough so that you don't strangle it. (an: GOD! now you got ME snickering!)  
  
Ginny looked at his had. Oh. So she had been holding it wrong the whole time. She adjusted her hand. "Like this?"  
  
"No-move your hands a little to the left-no, the other left-no-oh here." Oliver strode over to Ginny and from behind reached over and grabbed her hand. He adjusted her fingertips and curled her hand tighter. "There. Like that ." he suddenly realized they were in a VERY wrong and extremely naughty position.  
  
Ginny had realized it too. What had Loki said? Make him think of her in a hot way? She smiled. Oliver Wood wouldn't know what hit him. She wriggled closer into his arms.  
  
Oliver gasped sharply. She had wriggled. Little Ginny Weasley had WRIGGLED. He was so NOT supposed to be thinking thoughts like the ones he was having right now. She was probably a virgin for Ptolemy's sake. But his thoughts about Ginny were a definite NC-17 right now.  
  
Ginny smirked. Oh this was fun. "What's wrong, Oliver? Pant's gotten tight or something?" She whispered huskily.  
  
Oliver mumbled something.  
  
"What's that? Couldn't hear it over your screaming libido down there." She patted his pants leg sexily.  
  
"Oliver blushed. "We-we shouldn't be doing this."  
  
Ginny dropped the beater's club and turned around, pulling herself tighter around Oliver's neck.  
  
"Why? Because I'm a prim, little virgin? Well, hate to break it to you, Oliver, but I'm certainly not prim."  
  
"Oh?" he said, wrapping his arms around her uncovered waist.  
  
"No. and I'm sure as hell you're willing to cure me of the virgin part."  
  
Oliver gaped at that one. "Ginny!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're so young and-"  
  
"Then why do you have your arms wrapped around me so close they could go around again? Why? I'll tell you why. THIS is why." She leaned up and kissed Oliver.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Oliver leaned forward and deepened the kiss with his tongue. Ginny moaned, making him kiss harder. He started to lick her pulse point. She gasped in pleasure. He went down farther to the base of her neck. His tongue was making her tingle with pleasure. She grabbed his had and started to kiss him. She lost her balance and ended up on the ground with Oliver on top of her. Neither one of them cared. Just as long as-  
  
"Oliver Wood and Ginny Weasley! Just WHAT in Zeus's name WERE you doing?"  
  
Oliver and Ginny both looked up (well, in Ginny's case, she kind of looked upside-down)  
  
Oh shit. McGonagall. 


	11. AWW! Isn't Snapie CUTE!

Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of the characters in this fic besides Essie, Loki, Professor Anyanka Draca, and a couple of very minor characters in Ravenclaw and Slytherin. But I bet you knew that already, didn't you? Otherwise, why would you be reading a fanfic? Huh? Oh well. Just had to get the legal stuff put in.  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
Professor Draca was busy grading papers. Well, she was SUPPOSED to be grading papers, and she LOOKED like she was grading papers, but in reality, she was actually thinking about her choices for the Yule Ball while staring avidly at Neville Longbottom's test and holding her grading quill. She actually looked quite convincing if you didn't stare at her for too long. If you did, you would notice she never moved her quill or changed test papers. But that was beside the point. She was reviewing her choices. Seeing as she had so many, it was VITAL she reviewed EVERY SINGLE QUALITY of EVERY SINGLE GUY that had asked her. Of course, that was going to take a HELL of a lot of time, but oh well. She was so NOT going to go with the wrong guy. She had all ready eliminated all the students who had asked her. It wouldn't do to go with a shorter, younger guy. She was down to her last 3: Dumbledore, Vector, and Hagrid. Um, make that 2, she thought as she crossed off Dumbledore from her mental list. Dumbledore was WAY too old for her. She made a note to herself to get McGonagall to ask him. They would so damn CUTE toge-  
  
She looked up from Neville's test. Oh. The door was open. She looked again. Oh. Mr. Crook-nosed-pervert was coming in. She looked down at the test again and started grading like mad. She heard him walk closer. She suddenly had a mad curiosity about what type of underwear he wore. She blushed and continued grading. She knew immediately what he wanted. The man gave it all away by his posture. So stiff and nervous. "Yes, Severus, you may sit down. Thank you, I'm sure that comment you're thinking about my looks IS a compliment, not some sarcastic remark, yes, I'm not wearing shoes, and no to the ball. I've just come to a final decision on who-"  
  
Snape held up his hand. "Draca, since when were we familiar enough to use first names?"  
  
"Uh, since you forcefully snogged me in the hallway?"  
  
"Oh. Right."  
  
"Which I might add was completely uncalled for and-"  
  
And Snape silenced her, once again with a kiss. He was getting rather good at it.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
5 minutes later, they were still at it. Somehow, Anya had ended up on her back, on top of her desk, and Snape had ended up on top of her. Well, not ON TOP OF HER, on top of her, he was kind of leaning over her with his hands on either side of her. One of his hands was entangled in her thick, red-gold ringlets. The other was pulling her body towards his-  
  
Anya snapped out of her dram-like state right there. She swerved away from his lips. OK. Way to lose calm Anya, she thought. "Uh, Severus?"  
  
"Mm-hm?" he mumbled into her neck  
  
"Severus?"  
  
"I'm listening .you know, you smell quite delicious ."  
  
"SEVERUS!"  
  
He looked up in surprise, "Yes?"  
  
"Stop it!"  
  
"Stop what?"  
  
"Stop treating me like a scratch and sniff sticker!"  
  
"What? I wasn't."  
  
"Yes you were."  
  
"I think not."  
  
"Oh yes you were."  
  
"Was not. I may have been sniffing, but there was absolutely no scratching going on."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yes. Although I would be happy to arrange some snogging and scratching."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
15 minutes later, they were still at it. By now, Snape had shoved Anya's over-robe away. Anya had done the same with Snape's and was working on his black, silk, long-sleeved shirt. There was really no way she was going to get out of this without getting a glimpse of his chest. She could feel the muscles under his shirt. And she was sure Snape felt the same way about her. She had just gotten the second button undone when-  
  
The door creaked open and Essie stepped into the room  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Essie stopped. Well. That was on HELL of a tangled mess of professors on the desk. She could just make out Professor Draca's hair. Which was underneath-OH LORD. Which was underneath Professor Snape. She sighed.  
  
Draca looked up. Oh shit. She sat up, making things look worse, because NOW it looked like she wanted to press herself against Snape. "Umm, can I help you Essie?"  
  
Snape started. Essie? He climbed off of Draca and tuned. "Lei?"  
  
"Oh, hi Severus." Essie grinned wickedly. She had a brilliant beyond brilliant idea. She turned to professor Draca. "You see, Professor, Severus and I kind of, sort of, had a thing-but I'm sure you'd be glad enough to get him off my hands." Essie smirked at the fallen over- robes one more time. "Oh! And Professor Snape-I cant see much of it, but it looks like you've got one HELL of a chest there." She whirled around, leaving the astonished couple behind. She sincerely hoped they wouldn't go too far. Essie wasn't sure if Hogwarts was ready for a professor that was a single mom. Or a Snape who had a kid. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Professor Anyanka Draca was sitting in her private chambers, sipping some hot tea while grading the papers she was supposed to have been grading earlier. She had on a light blue robe and her nightgown, but that was it. She was even thinking about taking the robe off-the bell sleeves were getting in the way. Suddenly, the portrait hole to her chamber flew open. Anya shrieked loudly. "HOW-"  
  
"-Did I get in? You might want to change your password-DADA is NOT too creative," said Snape, smugly  
  
Anya blushed. "Severus, you are to leave immediately." She said pointing to the door, "I thrust you know your way out-"  
  
Snape lightly took her hand and softly kissed each finger. "Not before I ask you properly to the Yule Ball."  
  
"What?" asked Anya. Those lips were rather distracting.  
  
"Go to the Yule Ball with me. Please, luv."  
  
Anya gasped. Two reasons. 1., he had called her luv, and 2., right at that second he pulled her to his body. "S-Severus, the d-door is right open."  
  
"So?"  
  
"S-So someone might see us."  
  
"Like who? Oh luv, just say yes! Go with me?"  
  
Instead of answering lie a normal person, Professor Draca threw her arms around his neck and firmly planted her lips onto his.  
  
Snape took that as a yes.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
5 minutes later, they were still at it. (an: getting déjà vu? Well, you're gonna be getting a lot of that in this chapter.) Unfortunately, they had left the door open. Even more unfortunately, Hagrid was running right down the hall. And most unfortunate of all, he burst right into the room.  
  
"Professor Draca! Professor Draca! Have you decided who yer gonna go to th' ball with? Eh? What's this? How dare you SNAPE! Get of Professor Draca! How dare you force yerself on her!" He started to pull so hard at Snape, Snape's clothes started to rip. Professor Draca almost lost her balance because she had been leaning against Snape. "Hagrid!" she shrieked, "STOP!"  
  
"But he was takin' advantage of you, Professor."  
  
"No, he was NOT."  
  
"He was kissin' you professor."  
  
"I could see that, Hagrid."  
  
"Well, did you MEAN to let him kiss you?"  
  
"Yes, Hagrid."  
  
"Oh." Hagrid blushed. "Er, I, ah, I guess, I er, better be goin' now. An' I'm guess' yer not goin' th' ball with me." Hagrid looked down sadly at Anya and turned to leave.  
  
"WAIT! Hagrid!"  
  
"Eh?"  
  
"Ask Madam Hooch to the ball!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"She'll say yes! I promise!"  
  
Anya walked back into her room and shut the door. Snape looked at her oddly. "AWW! Doesn't Snapie look so CUTE when he's confused!"  
  
Snape growled. "WHAT did you call me?"  
  
"Snapie."  
  
Snape growled again.  
  
"Oh, does Snapie not like his little love-name?"  
  
Snape growled again.  
  
Anya walked up to him and put her arms around his neck. Again.  
  
"Perhaps Snapie would like it better if I started snogging him, too?"  
  
Snape didn't bother with an answer. He just pushed them both into a nearby sofa and started some serious snogging.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
AN: yes, yes, they were still at it an hour later. yeah. But I think you guessed that, eh? So review. My muse is finally back from her extensive vacation. That was for you, Risquer. Now, if all of y'all could please review me that would be great. ;p 


	12. What Ever Happened To Oliver and Ginny?

Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of the characters in this fic besides Essie, Professor Draca, and Loki (so far). The rest of them belong to J.K. Rowling. So there. You can't sue me.  
  
AN: this chapter is for all of you people (a.k.a. Risquer and Starr) who absolutely loved Oliver getting sprung and the whole Oliver/Ginny thing. Enjoy!  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
~2 days earlier~  
  
"I have never, in all my hears at Hogwarts, been so ashamed of a student or a staff member!" screeched McGonagall, "Oliver Wood! You should have known better than to seduce a student! Virginia Weasley! YOU should have known better than to lead him on! And right on the quidditch pitch too!" McGonagall kept going on and on. Oliver and Ginny looked at each other and tried not to laugh. Oliver? Seduce Ginny? And Ginny, lead him on? McGonagall needed to get her facts straight. It was Ginny who had done all the seducing, not Oliver. And Oliver had done most of the leading on.  
  
"WHAT WERE you two doing on the quidditch field, anyways?"  
  
"Well, er, ah," began Ginny. How in Ptolemy's name was she going to explain about the beater's club thingie without making things worse?  
  
"Yes, Miss Weasley?"  
  
"Well, you see Professor, Oliver was teaching me how to hold a club-a Beater's Club, not a CLUB, club, you know, and how you have to hold it tightly around the wooden ridges-of the Beater's club I mean-and he was angling my grip around the club-not HIS club, the Beater's club, and we started talking and stuff and we just started snogging and we couldn't stop and-and I think I'll stop know because I'm making this sound WAY worse than it really was."  
  
Oliver was snickering at all of this.  
  
McGonagall raised her eyebrow. "And would you agree with that, Assistant Wood?"  
  
"Yes, ma'am. Ginny needed some quidditch pointers and I gave 'em to her. Might have given her a bit more than quidditch pointers, but there really wasn't anything THAT indecent. I swear."  
  
McGonagall pursed her lips and nodded. She had no other choice but to believe them. "You are dismissed." She sighed, resigned.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
In the hallway, Ginny turned around to face Oliver. "So, are we still going to the ball together?"  
  
Oliver blinked. How could she have thought that they weren't? Hell, he was thinking way beyond the ball right now-his thoughts were somewhat centered around the bed. OK. Shit. Not a good thing to be thinking about.  
  
"I still go by what I said before, you know."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm a very un-prim virgin- and I'm sure you'd be more than happy to cure me of the virgin part." She stood on her tiptoes and pecked him on the lips before giggling huskily. "Down, tiger," she whispered mischievously, while she patted his thigh.  
  
She skipped away to the Gryffindor dormitory, and it was all Oliver Wood could do to keep himself from running after her. 


	13. Dueling Sparks

Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of the characters in this fic besides Essie, Loki, and Professor Draca. Otherwise, this wouldn't be a fanfic, right? It would be an actual novel by dear J.K. Rowling, who we all know is going to come out with the 6th book soon.  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
People were gathering in the Great Hall for breakfast when Dumbledore stood up. "I am pleased to announce that Hogwarts is going to attempt to start up a dueling club-again-suggested by Professors Snape a Draca. Of course, if there are any serious injuries THIS time, we will most certainly adjourn the club. It meets tonight at seven. Here."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
At 7:00, several hundred students gathered in the Great Hall. There was a dueling platform set up right in the center of the Hall. Suddenly, Snape grabbed Loki and Pansy Parkinson as Draca looked on calmly.  
  
"Hey! Let me go, you hook-nosed meanie!" yelled Loki. Several people cracked up at that one. Someone actually snorted. Snape sent a piercing glare at the offending snorter. "You two are a demonstration, Thompson. So snap out of your spoiled brat attitude and show me what you know about dueling. Granted that's probably not much, but show me what little knowledge you have. And we all know how adept you are at blowing things up, so there's no need to show us with Miss Parkinson here." He said before creating a magical barrier that surrounded the platform. He really didn't want anything broken. Besides Potter. He set Loki down with Pansy on the opposite side of the platform. But not before Pansy poked Loki in the chest and muttered, "Draco's mine, you Yankee slut." Loki raised an eyebrow and replied, "well, that explains why I'm the one snogging him, right?" Pansy flicked Loki off and walked sluttily to her side. She pulled the zipper of the slit in her skirt higher and faced Loki.  
  
"Duelers ready?" yelled Snape  
  
"Salute!"  
  
Loki barely nodded at Pansy. There was a slight snap as one of the seams in Pansy's tight-assed leather skirt popped. Loki nearly collapsed at that. You could see this huge hole on Pansy's ass. Snape sent her a look that would have melted steel that shut her up. Jeez. SOME people just had such huge poles up their asses. Though in Snape's case, it looked like there was a huge pole up his nose.  
  
"Set your wands!"  
  
Loki crouched into a fighter's stance. Pansy just lifted her wand. Loki supposed she really didn't want to rip that second-skin-skirt again.  
  
"3. . . 2. . .1! Duel!"  
  
Loki immediately yelled, "Incendio infammorae!" purple flame jumped out of her want straight at Pansy. Pansy screeched as one of them burned her skirt 2 inches higher.  
  
"You bitch-assed SLUT! That was pure Italian leather!"  
  
Loki snorted. "Well, you already ripped it. I was just finishing the job up."  
  
"YOU bitch! Incinnerendo cumulous!" a fireball that greatly resembled a mushroom cloud rolled towards Loki. The air crackeld with a magical energy that shattered everything in its shimmering waves touched. Loki jumped out of the way, but instead of getting roasted by the fireball, she got tossed by the energy waves. She lay on the ground stunned. The fireball changed directions as headed straight towards her.  
  
Outside the barrier, Essie just snapped. OK. This was going WAY too far. She stalked over to Snape. "Let me in."  
  
Snape looked at her in surprise. "Why?"  
  
"Because what looks disturbingly like a gigantic lit fart is about to roast my best friend."  
  
"And?"  
  
"And I'm gonna go in there and make sure she's not going to turn in a Loki kabob."  
  
Snape shook his head. "Pansy wouldn't do that."  
  
"Uh, duh. What else would she be doing right now?"  
  
He glanced at the platform. What Essie was saying was true. Pansy was just standing there with a smirk on her face. Didn't she realize this counted as murder? Snape whirled back to face Essie.  
  
"Well? Let me in."  
  
"No."  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"It's too dangerous. You could get killed."  
  
"And so could Loki."  
  
"I won't let you in."  
  
"YOU WANT HER TO DIE!?"  
  
"No, but I don't want YOU to die either."  
  
The fireball was circling closer to Loki. She was still stunned, out could on the floor.  
  
"You COWARD! Let me IN!"  
  
"No." he grabbed her wrist and attempted to guider her back to Harry. Essie then felt something shift inside of her. She felt different. Powerful. She felt taller. Well, she WAS taller. She levitating? What fresh hell? Oh well. Loki was about to become barbeque. She grabbed Snape's arm with her other hand and wrenched it away from her wrist.  
  
"You let me go."  
  
Snape's eyes widened. She wasn't strong enough to do that. Her voice was soaked with power. It was two octaves lover and it had become ten decibels louder. It had just rolled out of her mouth. He looked again. Oh gods of Olympus. He normally almond shaped, chocolate brown eyes were glowing crimson with golden slits for pupil. She took his arms and tossed him to the ground. As her feet touched the floor, she ran up to the barrier.  
  
"Release."  
  
As she dashed through the barrier, the fireball was about to run over Loki. "NO!" she screamed. Everyone watched in shock as the fireball halted for a second. Essie took advantage of this as she raised both hands and called "Extinguish!" in her newly deeper voice. It vanished without so much as a shimmer. Essie turned and ran to Loki. "Loks, you OK?"  
  
Loki groaned as she sat up. No, she was not OK. She had almost been turned into a crème brulee without the crème by a great big ball of fire. She looked around. "Where'd it go?"  
  
"I yelled extinguish and it disappeared."  
  
"Oh. Are you OK? Your voice sounds all diff-oh god." Loki had just looked up and seen Essie's eyes. "Ess, you either have one HELL of a case of pink eye, or something much, much worse." Then she looked and saw a VERY disappointed Pansy. "YOU BITCH!" she yelled as she vaulted herself at Pansy, "YOU ABSOLUTE UTTER BITCH!" She knocked Pansy over and landed on top of her. On hand held Pansy down by the neck while the other repeatedly punched Pansy in the face. Pansy had two black eyes, a bloody nose, and a missing tooth before Snape a Draca got to her. Snape pulled her off as Draca was checking to see if Pansy had a busted skull.  
  
"Let. . . me. . . go!" gasp/yelled Loki as she struggled against Snape, "I. . . need. . . to. . . punch. . . her again!"  
  
"No. I think that is quite enough punching for today."  
  
"You. . . bastard!" she yelled, "Essie! Get him off of me!"  
  
Essie merely looked at Snape and he flew ten feet in the air and smacked down into the platform.  
  
"Thanks!" Loki ran back to Pansy, who was still quite conscious. "Hey, bitch, here's one for saying Draco's yours." She hit Pansy in the jaw, where there was a sickening crack. Loki stood back to survey her handwork. The blow hand knocked Pansy unconscious.  
  
Draca felt Pansy's jaw and sighed. "Did you HAVE to break her jaw?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Snape, meanwhile, had picked himself up and walked over, wincing. Essie had seriously bruised his tailbone with that flight she had so graciously bestowed upon him.  
  
"Well. Anya, please take Miss Parkinson to the hospital wind and send a message to Dumbledore. I think this merits an expulsion. As for you," he said, turning to Loki, "If you had been in a house, I would have given you points for a dueling well done. But since you're not, I'll have to give you detention for breaking Miss Parkinson's jaw."  
  
"Even if she tried to kill me?"  
  
Snape crossed his arms across his chest.  
  
"Fine." Loki stomped off the platform and grabbed her wand. She muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "bastard" before leaving the Great Hall.  
  
Snape turned to Essie, whose eyes were still glowing blood red and gold. "And YOU are going to accompany me to the infirmary."  
  
"Why?" asked Essie, her voice still way too deep.  
  
"You're meeting Professor Dumbledore with me. We have much to talk about."  
  
Essie rolled her eyes and allowed herself to be led away by Snape. People drew back, making currental eddies through the crowd. Her eyes looked freaky. The only person who didn't draw back was Harry. He staunchly grabbed her hand and walked with her, even if he had the strangest sense of déjà vu from her eyes.  
  
As they left the Great Hall, Draco's smart mouth summed up what a lot of the guys were thinking. "Well, I must say, my girl DOES look fantastic when she's beating someone up."  
  
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AN: well? What do you think? Review me. now that ff.net has FINALLY got their hardrive under control. So yeah. Woo-hoo! I can actually update! Yay! So yes, review me. please. 


	14. This Complicates things a bit

Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of the characters except for Essie, Loki, and Anyanka Draca. Everything else is certainly not mine. But then again, you probably knew that, right?  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
"Well," said Dumbledore, sitting down, "it seems we have a lot to talk about, Miss Lei."  
  
Essie sighed. It had been two hours but her eyes were still glowing a little. And her voice was STILL kind of deep. "I don't know what happened. It's never happened before. I was all mad a Snape when he grabbed my wrist and then I was floating and he was on the ground looking like shi-er, looking very bad."  
  
Dmubledore chuckled. No wonder Harry liked this girl so much. And he was amazed how she had attracted Severus. It was unnatural how much Snape was in love with her. Of course, he was dating Professor Draca now, but he was sure Severus would come to his senses soon.  
  
"If I may, Professor Dumbledore-" said Snape, interrupting Dumbledore's chain of thought, "But I think it is time to escort Miss Lei to her dormitory?"  
  
Dumbledore nodded. "Come to me if you find out anything," he commanded Essie. He turned to Snape. "I trust you're going to be doing the escorting, Severus?"  
  
"If that is what you wish, Sir."  
  
"Oh, but it's what YOU wish Severus."  
  
Severus scowled and grabbed Essie and stalked out of the room.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Essie waited until they were out of the infirmary before she yanked her arm out of Snape's grip. "OW! What is it with you and grabbing my arm? I'd think you'd have learned your lesson by now. Unless you want another flying lesson?"  
  
"Shut up, you silly little girl," hissed Snape  
  
"Why? Afraid your girlfriend will hear us? You shouldn't have offered to escort me then. In case you didn't notice, MY VOICE IS HUGE NOW!" she yelled so loud that one of the vases in the hall fell and broke.  
  
Severus clapped a hand over her mouth. "Shut up before you break anything else-my eardrums in particular." He was slightly shocked by the red tinge that was growing in her eyes. But that didn't shock him nearly as much as the warm, wet, slightly slimy thing he felt on the palm of his hand. He yelped and wiped his hand on his robes.  
  
Essie's eyes were quite brown and sparkling with laughter.  
  
"What WAS that?"  
  
"My tongue. You shouldn't have looked at my eyes. Otherwise you would have seen the muscles in my mouth working."  
  
"Your tongue?"  
  
"Yeah. Why? You didn't seem so squeamish when it was in your mouth."  
  
"Oh, you," growled Snape. He grabbed her and planted a firm kiss on her lips. He was about to let go, but she kept holding on. She was right. He wasn't nearly so squeamish about her tongue when it was in his mouth.  
  
Suddenly, Essie felt very tired. She sighed as she closed her eyes and very suddenly fell asleep, her arms still around him.  
  
Snape decided to oblige her and swung her into his arms as he started walking to her dormitory.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
AN: and that wraps up this very short chapter. Hell, that was the shortest thing I ever wrote. Whatever. Just review por favor. It would do me very good. And where is risquer? Are you still there? Please review. I wrote this all because of your prodding. So yeah. I dedicate this chapter to you. 


	15. We've done the dueling, now the yuleing

Disclaimer-The only characters in this fic that I actually own are Anya Draca, Essie, and Loki. Otherwise, I would be J.K. Rowling and you would be begging for my autograph. But I'm not, and you're not, so wouldn't it be best, if we let things be? Err, yeah. Soap opera moment there. But anyways . . .  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
The whole gang was in their Care of Magical Creatures class, trying to learn the properties of fire crabs without getting fired at. Hermione, of course, was the only one who was in total control. Loki had several singe marks on her robe, Ron was busy cursing because his bit him, Harry couldn't see anything because his fire crab had melted his glasses, and Essie's had just stuck itself inside it's shell and wasn't budging. Essie's eyes were getting a crimson glow and her pupils were getting gold. Harry was glancing at her, worried, when she suddenly shouted, "REVEAL YOURSELF, DAMMIT!" The fire crab popped out of his shell with a grudging sigh and let Essie poke him.  
  
Meanwhile, Ron had stopped cussing and was 'studying' Hermione's fire crab with her. To Essie, it looked like he was trying to smell her hair.  
  
"So. . ." began Ron, his voice shaking a bit. How was he going to do this? He had liked Hermione forever, but it was just recently that he had LIKED, liked her. She was really gorgeous.  
  
"So. . . have you been asked to the ball yet?" Olympian gods, he sounded like a true idiot.  
  
"Err, yeah. By lots of guys-you know, since my whole makeup thing. . . why?" Did she sound like a cheerleader? It was her greatest fear that she would sound like a cheerleader. Especially to Ron. Ron was not really the type to like cheerleaders. Well, actually he WAS, but SHE wasn't the type that liked cheerleaders.  
  
"Well, err," began Ron, "err, would you, um, wouyougobalwitme?"  
  
"Say what?"  
  
"Do you want to go to the ball with me?"  
  
Hermione just gaped. RON? Ron had asked her? RON?! He, he liked HER?  
  
Ron was getting rather nervous with her staring. "You-you know, you really don't have to go with me if you don't want to. I mean, I understand if some totally great guy asked you; that's fine-"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"-and I totally understand. Why go with me if someone like Oliver Wood asked you-"  
  
"Ron, I said yes."  
  
"-because I know how girls think about him. Hehe, why go with me right? When you can go with hi-"  
  
Hermione cut him off with a kiss. Loki was right. Sometimes it WAS the only way to shut a guy up.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
On Saturday, Essie, Loki, Ginny, and Hermione were trying to convince Draco on the benefits of a muggle suit. Draco was, of course, staunchly refusing.  
  
"Why in Ptolemy's name would I want to dress like a muggle?"  
  
"Draco, you HAVE to."  
  
"Because if you don't, we won't match."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I've already seen my dress. If I'm dressed as a muggle, you have to be too."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Honestly, is that the only thing you can say?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"ARGH!" suddenly, Loki had an inspirational idea. She looped her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer.  
  
"Please, Draco?" she whispered in a voice that sounded remarkably like Marilyn Monroe, "PLEEEASE?" she fluttered her eyelashes into his neck and tilted her head upwards, "It would make us look sooooo much better you know," she traced a finger on his chest, "if, you know, we could look better." She lightly pressed her lips against his. She leaned back and surveyed her handiwork. "So, is that a yes?"  
  
"Ah, err, dah, errr, ah. . ."  
  
"Good. Let's go look for your suit.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A couple of days later, Essie and Loki were busy getting ready for the ball. They had each found the perfect dress. Hermione and Ginny were coming any minute, and Harry, Ron, Oliver, and Draco were meeting near the Great Hall in a couple of hours. Loki was trying to re-apply her mascara (Essie had made her laugh so hard, it had run) she looked into the mirror to check if she had any more streaks. But what she was definitely NOT her reflection.  
  
. . . Two men talking. A tall, thin one. A short, fat one. A snake. A knife. A cauldron. A column of flames. Fiery deaths. A hand, reaching to her. Choking her, chaining her. Loki screamed in terror and fell backwards. She could feel the hand. It was still on her neck. She could see the flames. Fire. Burning. She couldn't breath. The hand. The burning. There was only one way to get rid of it. She grabbed her want and gasped, "Expendio!" just when she was going to pass out. The mirror exploded with a furious scream. She could feel its power, even in its destruction.  
  
"Loki? Are you OK? Asked Essie, walking over the glass shards. "Whoa. What happened? Are you hurt? What-"  
  
Loki grabbed Essie and pulled her down. "they're coming tonight."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"They crave power and death."  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"And they hope we shall give them both."  
  
"How?"  
  
"They will feed off of fear."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Suddenly, Loki grabbed a glass shard and cut her palm. She slit Essie's too. Essie was too shocked to say anything.  
  
Loki pressed her hand against Essie's and whispered, "If we ever come out alive tonight, we must do it together. Combined, our powers will defeat them. Only then. When our blood courses through eachother's veins, we will conquer."  
  
She held their hands together for another second before letting go. When she did, there was only a scar. A star-shaped scar in the center of their hands. Loki looked at Essie, and whispered, shocked, "He is no kin of yours." Before going into a dead faint.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A couple of hours later, they were all ready. Essie and Loki hadn't told Hermione and Ginny about Loki's vision. They had both tried to concentrate on getting ready for the ball.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
At 8:00, everyone was ready. They tripped out of their dormitory to meet their men.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Harry's mouth dropped open. Wide. Like almost dislocating it. HOLY SHIT and HOT DAMN. Essie was wearing a slinky, black, sleeveless, strapless, floor length dress that was VERY clingy. She had a thin, gauzy shawl with a thin sheen of black glitter over it. Her only decoration was a cker with a crystal in the center. She had put a growing charm on her hair, so it was long enough to have been put up in ringlets. Her only makeup was a thin layer of metallic blue eye shadow and dark burgundy lipstick.  
  
She glanced at Harry. Ooh. Black on black on black. She liked it. A LOT. His shirt and his tie were black silk. She had a thing for black silk. She went over, pressed his mouth shut, and kissed him. When she turned around to take his arm, Harry noticed that her dress was QUITE backless.  
  
Draco was busy looking at Loki. He very much approved. She was wearing a dress made of crinkly gold silk. The straps were triangular shaped, with the points attaching to the dress itself. The material clung to Loki's body, showing off her figure. But the thing that made Draco's eyes REALLY go speechless was the way Loki seemed to be walking in a cloud. Literally. From mid-calf down, she was surrounded by white mist infused with gold sparks.  
  
Loki looked at Draco. And looked. And looked. Bloody hell! How had he known what color her dress was, so he could match? Oh yeah, she had told him. But HOT DAMN. With an emphasis on HOT. He was wearing black on black on black with a shimmer gold tie. She felt weak at the knees. His hair and THAT TIE matched PERFECTLY.  
  
Ron looked like he had swallowed his tongue. This was HERMIONE? He was going to have to DANCE with her? He couldn't even WALK. She had her sleek hair up in a long braid that wrapped around her head several times, like a crown. He dress was a dark, satiny, cobalt blue. Her eyes were particularly brown under her mascara, and her lips were a shimmery pink. When she gave him a quick peck on the cheek, he almost collapsed.  
  
Hermione smiled wickedly. He looked GOOD in that MIB suit. Despite his paleness, Ron was quite a hottie. She loved the way his hair fell into his face. Plus, he had a nice chest.  
  
Suddenly, Ron glanced at Ginny. And kept on glancing. And he wasn't the only one.  
  
"Ginny!" gasped Oliver. He STILL couldn't get over how beautiful little Ginny Weasley had become. And this REALLY blew him over the edge. She was, there was no other word for it, gorgeous.  
  
Her dress was a pure, emerald green. It had a very renaissance look to it, with cinched bell sleeves, a square neckline, and its hem hit the floor. He was having VERY improper thoughts right now.  
  
Ginny looked seductively at Oliver. He was in an MIB suit too. She walked up to him and hissed him lightly on the cheek. She couldn't resist whispering "Hellooooooo Mr. Wood," while she patted his lower back. Oliver turned bright red and turned Ginny to hiss her on the lips.  
  
"OY!" yelped Ron, "We can all do without the sight of someone named, of all things, WOOD, kissing my baby sister!"  
  
Hermione sighed as she shut Ron up with her mouth again. Looks like I'll be doing THIS a LOT, she thought. Oh Lord.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Anya Draca burst into Snape's chambers, severely pissed. "You'd THINK that SOME people would be more APPRECIATIVE of someone and actually SHOW UP after they asked a person to a BALL, Severus."  
  
Snape turned around slowly. "Oh? We were meeting at YOUR chambers? I thought we were meeting at the Great Hall."  
  
"Where you could escape? I mean really Severus," ranted Anya, "I expected you-OOOOOH." She just noticed. He was wearing dress robes. Of course, they were black. But SILK black. And his hair was very NOT greasy.  
  
"Yes, Draca?"  
  
"Err, you look pretty."  
  
Snape raised an eyebrow.  
  
"I-I mean, in a very MASCULINE sort of way."  
  
Snape started to smirk.  
  
"Oh, don't you start, Mr. I Take Everything Sarcastically!"  
  
"I wasn't."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I was attempting to smile."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Snape started to walk in a full circle around Draca. She was dressed gorgeously in a sparkly black, sleeveless dress with a shiny, blue corset on top. He suddenly froze when he spotted her necklace. A sleek, sterling silver dragon with green, emerald eyes, complete with golden, ruby inlaid fire. He touched the dragon, petting it, and it sighed. Snape's fingers froze.  
  
"What is it Severus?"  
  
"N-nothing." It couldn't be. He had given one exactly to-but it couldn't be. No. There must be two of a kind. There had to be.  
  
"Allow me?" he took her hand and placed it on his arm as they started walking to the Great Hall.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Inside the Hall, Essie, Loki, Hermione, Ginny, and their respective dates all grabbed on table, near the high table. Essie was seeing who was with who. Cho wasn't there. After Cedric, she got rather depressed by the Ball. Hagrid, to her amusement, was with Madam Hooch. Dumbledore was sitting with McGonagall. Snape had just walked in with Draca. Wait, who was the wizard Snape was all scowly faced at? He looked so familiar.  
  
OH MY GOD.  
  
"Hello cousin," hissed Snape.  
  
Essie squealed/gasped. "LOKI! IT'S ALAN RICKMAN!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alan Rickman turned around. Did someone mention his name? Who was this? A pretty, Asian witch in a sexy black dress was staring at him with eyes as round as saucers, along with another witch-this one with violet eyes and auburn hair. He motion to them and Dumbledore nodded. He stepped down from the high table and started walking towards them, Snape trailing him.  
  
Alan Rickman was walking towards her. Oh, she knew he was in muggle movies. She had seen them all. And she knew he was a wizard. He appeared on the wizarding stage often. But, SNAPE'S COUSIN?  
  
"Ah, yes," sighed Snape, "these are our AMERICAN exchange students- Lokara Thompson-"  
  
Loki just shook his hand wordlessly, her mouth in a serious goldfish shape.  
  
"-And Essence Lei." Essie had had enough with Snape's condescending manner with Americans. Well, time to shove some of his own shit up his nose.  
  
"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Rickman," she replied, in a faultless British accent.  
  
Alan's eyes were laughing. THIS girl, a yank? Heavens, no. she sounded like an English born, English bred, if he ever heard one. Best treat her like one.  
  
"A pleasure." He bent down and kissed her hand.  
  
Essie smirked at Snape. Take that, Mr. Cantankerous Conk!  
  
Snape rolled his eyes. Sure, her sounded quite authentic, but he had just SAID she was American.  
  
Alan straightened back up. "Did my cousin just call you an American?"  
  
Essie sighed rolling her eyes. "Yes," she sighed again, "He gets me confused with my American twin. We've got a rather interesting situation. Have you seen that muggle film, The Parent Trap?"  
  
"I have."  
  
"Well, think that, but a bit more complicated."  
  
He laughed. "Indeed. And where IS this American twin of yours?"  
  
"She's not feeling well. A spot of a cold, I believe."  
  
Harry cleared his throat.  
  
"Oh! Yes! Mr. Rickman, may I introduce my date, Harry Potter?"  
  
Alan Rickman did the slightest double take at the scar, before bowing slightly, and saying, "An honor, Mr. Potter, indeed" and headed back to the high table, with Snape alternating a scowl between Alan and Essie.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
After a decidedly sumptuous dinner, Dumbledore stood up and clapped his hands. A floating platform suddenly appeared, with a small curtain, covering whatever, or more appropriately, whoever was on it.  
  
"Ah, yes. May I present the musical guest of the evening-No Doubt."  
  
There was a collective gasp as the curtains pulled. No Doubt was a musical rarity-being popular with muggles as well as magical folk.  
  
The band immediately struck up "Hey Baby" as the tables were pushed against the wall and people started to dance.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
A couple of hours later, No Doubt was taking a small break. Magical instruments were playing some light music. WITHOUT people playing them. Essie was sitting alone (poor Harry was swept up by an extremely jealous Parvati Patil). She had waved away all of the boys who had asked her to dance, and was just sitting by herself, delicately sipping some punch.  
  
"May I sit down?"  
  
"Of course, Mr. Rickman."  
  
He sent her a look that almost made her melt (think Harry, think Harry) (an: the little triangle thingies are for showing thoughts. This is Essie's) and sat down, rather comfortably in the chair next to her.  
  
"Mmm, thank you, miss Lei."  
  
She flashed a smile at him. "Oh, do call me Essie. Only your cousin calls me miss Lei, and only when he's extremely fed up, at that."  
  
He smiled. "Call me Alan then."  
  
"All right."  
  
Alan's eyes scanned the crowd briefly before- "Are you really a Yank, as Severus keeps on insisting?"  
  
Essie smiled secretively. "If I was, I would have one of their appalling accents, wouldn't I?"  
  
Alan grinned. "Many Yanks have been known to cast off their accents in favor of a more, shall we say, British form of speech."  
  
She smiled again.  
  
Alan threw up his hands in exasperation. "Olympian GODS woman! You are either one HELL of an actress or extremely excellent at lying. Have you ever considered working as a spy? Severus never lies about such things, but your accent and demeanor throw me. Will you not tell me what you ARE?"  
  
Essie laughed. "I don't know, Alan. A slight-of-hand artist never reveals his tricks, just as an actress never reveals what her true self is, lest the audience distinguish what is an act, and what is true life."  
  
He growled again.  
  
Essie giggled. Time to pull out her bargain. "oh, all right. I'll show you which story is true-"  
  
Alan jumped was she REALLY going to give in that easy?  
  
"-If you teach me how to tango, like you did in the muggle music video, In Demand."  
  
Apparently not. It had been ages since he had tangoed. But- "Deal."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Alan Rickman grabbed Essie's hand (Harry was still being held captive by a vengeful Parvati) and pulled her to the dance floor. When he was showing her the steps, he noticed how quickly she caught on. When she knew it completely, he turned to the spelled instruments, pulled out his want, muttered a spell, and whirled back to Essie. Instantly, the song "in Demand" filled the room, along with the disembodied voice of the lead singer of Texas.  
  
". . .you made me feel in demand. . ."  
  
They were tangoing. Exactly like the music video. Essie felt giddy. She had dreamed of this so many times.  
  
". . .in demand. . ."  
  
As the song came to a final crescendo, he pulled her into a dip so deep, it looked like she was doing a back bend with her arms around his neck. She laughed, delightedly, before he eased her back up.  
  
"Well?" he asked  
  
"Well what?"  
  
"Gods dammit, woman! Are you a Yank or a Brit?"  
  
"I honestly don't see why it matters so very much to you-"  
  
He growled.  
  
She reverted back to her normal voice, "-But I am QUITE American, thank you. And of course, I have absolutely no twin whatsoever." She gave him a devilish wink before heading off towards Harry.  
  
"Wait!"  
  
She turned. "What?"  
  
He had found her. The exact girl he needed for an opposite in his next film. "Can you sing?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Well, then I'm offering you a part opposite of me in my next film."  
  
She gaped. "You're, bloody kidding!" She yelled in her British accent.  
  
He grinned and shook his head. This girl never missed a beat.  
  
"Well the, OF COURSE I'll do it! I'll never have another bloody chance!"  
  
HE nodded. "Talk with me later. Next week, preferably. I'll still be here."  
  
She nodded before heading off to rescue Harry from the unmerciful Patil.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Professor Draca looked absent-mindedly at her date, who was busy glaring at his unbearably dashing cousin.  
  
"You know, Snapie, it's physically impossible to set him aflame with your eyes."  
  
"I know. But there's no harm in trying, is there?"  
  
She sighed. "Are you JEALOUS, Severus?"  
  
"Maybe."  
  
She growled in mock frustration. "Oh, you stubborn types."  
  
"I am NOT stubborn."  
  
She gave him a look.  
  
"Well, OK, maybe a little."  
  
She gave him another look.  
  
"Maybe a lot."  
  
She sighed and handed him a glass of wine. "Here. Drink this. It'll help you relax."  
  
He obediently took the glass, but just as he was about to take a sip, he felt an all to familiar sensation. A sensation that felt incredibly like a hook jerking him behind his navel.  
  
"What the bloody, fucking, hell?" he exclaimed as he vanished in a flash.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Essie! Loki! Harry! Draco! There you are! I've been looking all over for you! Here, I've got to give you these." Anya held up a sheath of parchment. "I forgot to give back your tests in the last class. . ."  
  
They took their test with a curious stare. Who gave back test during a ball?  
  
Then they all felt the tugging behind their belly-button.  
  
"Bon Voyage," snickered Draca, right before they vanished from sight.  
  
Things were steadily going from bad to hell.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
AN: YES! I did it! I wrote it! I'm probably going to work on this and finish it before I go on with my other fics. Seeing as I'm working to tie them in. but yeah. REVIEW ME!!!!!! 


	16. Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

Disclaimer: I own absolutely none of the characters in this fic besides Essie, Loki, Draca, and the new one that you're about to meet. Also, I DO own the plot, but not the settings, and of course, like they say at the end of movies, the characters and events in this fic are entirely fictional (despite my resemblance in character and looks to Essie) and if they resemble your life or whatever, I don't own you and no offense was meant. There, that over-  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
Harry, Essie, Loki, and Draco all dropped down at the same place.  
  
Essie looked around. They were in some weird clearing at the edge of the Hogwarts grounds. She could still see the castle. There was a bubbling cauldron, and several potion ingredients in the center of the clearing, along with an unconscious Professor Snape. She looked up. Oh shit. And they were surrounded by Death Eaters.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Wormtail stepped forward and bound them all with cords coming from his wand, giving special attention to Essie's. She glared at him, her eyes turning a blood red, and her pupils forming flaxen slits.  
  
"You puppet bastard," she hissed.  
  
Wormtail just kept on tying her.  
  
"I know who you are, Peter Pettigrew."  
  
Wormtail froze. How had she known his name?  
  
"You absolute, fucking, bastard."  
  
He had had enough. He slapped her face.  
  
Her head snapped. She slowly looked up, her eyes glowing with a crimson pulse.  
  
"Bet you Liked that, eh Wormtail? Beating on helpless people, just to make sure you win." She fingered her wand. "Well, no more. RELEASE!" She yelled, sending her bonds flying. All the Death Eaters took a step back. "Yes," she hissed, "I'm not just a nice little Asian girl, I'm a mad, bitchy, POWERFUL little Asian girl." She started to slowly turn around in a circle, still facing the Death Eaters, "Scared? You should be." Her back still away from the Death Eaters, she went of to Loki, Harry, and Draco. "Release." Their bonds disintegrated into dust. She went over to Snape. "Enervate."  
  
He sat up, blinking his eyes. "Essie?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
"In the middle of a clearing on the edge of the Hogwarts grounds, surrounded by what looks like very loyal Death Eaters. I suggest you stand up, pull your wand out, and get ready to start hexing the figurative pants off of all of them."  
  
"Oh. Right." He got up clumsily and pulled his wand out of his pocket. He settled into a fighter's stance and eyed the Death Eaters. "I'm assuming they're trying to kill us?"  
  
"Well, does it LOOK like they're throwing a Christmas party?"  
  
"Good point. Thought they look quite happier than the last time I saw them."  
  
A soft, evil laugh rippled through the circle. "Still haven't changed, have you Severus?" A think willowy, red-haired figure stepped thought the crowd, "Still try to mouth off when you shouldn't, eh?"  
  
Harry's gasped. "Professor Draca?"  
  
She smirked. "Looks like that eh? Well, just you wait. My Polyjuice Potion should be wearing off about now."  
  
Just as she spoke, she began to change. Her curls began to lengthen and become wavy. The color turned slowly to pitch black. Her skin became paler, and her hazel eyes turned a wicked green. She became several inches taller. Even her dress changed. She was now in a solid black, strapless dress with no back and an extremely low neckline. The dress came to her mid-thigh, where it met the beginnings of black leather boots. She still wore the dragon charm.  
  
Now it was Snape's turn to gasp. "Serena?"  
  
The woman smirked evilly.  
  
Essie turned to Snape. "Who?"  
  
Snape blushed. "Err, well, she's an evil, bitchy slut who I, err, happened to have dated at Hogwarts."  
  
Essie's eyes widened. "You actually DATED someone at Hogwarts!?"  
  
Snape nodded reluctantly. "Err, yeah. Gave her that dragon charm actually. But, like I said, evil bitchy slut."  
  
Essie eyed Serena. "How evil?"  
  
Serena laughed again. "Oh, I'm VERY evil," she said, her voice low and diabolical, "Severus can tell you. But I'm not a slut, I'm a whore."  
  
"Indeed. And she's my whore now." All the Death Eaters in the circle fell to their knees as a tall, thin wizard with a high voice came and kissed Serena on the neck.  
  
Harry's scar exploded with pain. "Voldemort."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
"Ah yes, Harry Potter. I'd have thought you were dead by now."  
  
Essie couldn't help it. She started laughing. Hard.  
  
Voldemort turned to her, quickly. "Ah. Harry Potter's girlfriend. My delightful spy-" he paused to press Serena closer to his chest, "-Tells me you have some unique powers."  
  
Essie kept laughing.  
  
Voldemort's eyes widened under his hood. "Idiot girl. Are you laughing at ME?"  
  
She was bent over mirth.  
  
"ANSWER ME!!"  
  
Essie turned to Harry. "You mean. . . to say. . . that this skinny pimp. . . with a helium infused voice. . . is VOLDEMORT?! You've got to be JOKING!" She started to crack up again.  
  
Voldemort narrowed his eyes even more. "You find this amusing, girl?"  
  
"Oh, heavens yes."  
  
"I wonder how amusing you'd find it under the Cruciatus Curse! CRUCIO!" Red sparks flew out of his wand.  
  
Essie looked up and made an upward motion with her hand. The sparks flew into the air, and having nothing to harm, exploded. She turned to Voldemort. "Lovely fireworks. Not quite torture though."  
  
Voldemort's eye's widened. He recovered quickly and sent the curse to Harry.  
  
Harry collapsed to the ground, gasping in pain.  
  
Essie's eyes narrowed as she felt them go blood red. OK. This guy had gone far enough. She walked over to Harry. "Release."  
  
Harry immediately felt the pain evaporate.  
  
Essie walked over to Voldemort. "OK, wise guy. That was going WAY too far. You can hurt me, but NOT my friends. Because, you see, that was VERY much uncalled for. So just fight me. And take off the frickin' hood. It's annoying me." She yanked off his cloak, and stood, shocked.  
  
His eyes were the mirror image of hers.  
  
He stood, looking just as shocked. How? And why THIS girl?  
  
Essie shook her head to focus herself. "Well? What ARE you waiting for? DUEL!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Half an hour later, things were NOT looking good.  
  
Loki had been dragged to the cauldron, and it looked like the two Death Eaters holding her were about to throw her in. Suddenly, Draco pulled himself away from the Death Eaters he was currently fighting. "NO!"  
  
Voldemort looked up. "No? Lucius, I thought you had taught your son loyalty to me."  
  
Lucius Malfoy strode over and grabbed Draco's shoulders. "I have. You will follow my lord without question," he hissed into Draco's ear, "or you will shame your family name. The Dark Lord needs her visionary powers in the potion. He will be much strengthened. And you will be the one to stir it." He shoved Draco to the bubbling mixture and handed him a spoon, and forced him to stir. Lucius signaled the Death Eaters who were holding Loki forward. They were about to toss her in when Draco stopped stirring.  
  
"I don't think so." He hit the two Death Eaters and his father with a jelly-legs jinx. He turned to his father. "It's shaken, not stirred, father."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Voldemort had her where he wanted her. Oh, she had taken down his Death Eaters, yes, but he knew EXACTLY how to make her surrender. "So, you said I could attack you, eh?" He said, inching towards her.  
  
Essie backed up against a tree. Close. He was far too close.  
  
"But I can't hurt your friends?"  
  
Essie looked at him, terrified.  
  
"Well, it's high time you saw the full power of my wrath." He nodded to his remaining Death Eaters.  
  
They all aimed their wands at Harry. Red currents of fiery magic wrapped themselves around him and lifted him up with their power.  
  
Harry's cries were ones of true pain  
  
Whoa. Where had that thought come from? It sounded incredibly like Loki.  
  
She looked up. Loki and Draco had been gagged and bound, but it looked like Loki was trying to say something around her gag.  
  
My vision  
  
Essie finally understood. But how to defeat this? She stared at the Death Eaters.  
  
"LET HIM GO." Her voice, two octaves lower and 10 decibels louder reverberated across the clearing.  
  
The Death Eaters faltered. She sounded powerful. Far too powerful.  
  
But they weren't letting him go. She stalked over to them.  
  
"RELEASE."  
  
Harry fell free, free from the pain, free from the crimson currents, and dropped to the ground, stunned.  
  
"Accio wands." All of the Death Eaters' wands flew into her hands. "Petrificus Totalus." All fell to the ground, stunned.  
  
A low laugh echoed through the clearing. "Shouldn't have paid any attention to my little diversion, eh? Funny how being so attracted to someone makes you so unperceptive to anything else." He gestured in the direction of Hogwarts.  
  
Essie looked up. There was a dark, red, THING flying around the castle.  
  
"Oh shit."  
  
The Chinese Fireball blew a fiery breath over the whole castle. And it was NOT fireproof.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Essie was thinking frantically. What? What could she do? Her powers could never extinguish a blaze as big as this.  
  
Kill the source  
  
What? She could her Loki in her brain, but what WAS she talking about?  
  
Get rid of a problem by its source  
  
It was worth a try.  
  
She aimed all the wands at the dragon. Here went nothing. "AVADA KEDAVRA."  
  
A gigantic line of green light hit the dragon.  
  
The fire kept going.  
  
"IT'S NOT WORKING!"  
  
So DO something!  
  
"What?"  
  
ANYTHING!!!!!  
  
Voldemort was watching Essie curiously. Who was she mind-speaking with?  
  
"Well, here goes nothing!"  
  
She sent a prayer up to heaven and started to concentrate on her powers.  
  
"I call of Father Zeus and all his Olympian companions."  
  
She had no utter idea what she was doing. But it sounded good.  
  
Voldemort had no utter idea what the girl was doing. But it sounded really good.  
  
"I call on Aeolus, keeper of the winds, to heard the rain clouds and unleash the mighty North Wind, Boreas."  
  
Wow. So all that Greek mythology HAD paid off. There was a swirling wind going around, tipping everything over.  
  
"I call on Demeter, goddess of the harvest, to send me a powerful rainfall."  
  
Err, well, she had to, for harvest, right?  
  
"I ask for Zeus to protect my school and friends."  
  
A boom of thunder echoed.  
  
"Spirits of water, of the clouds, come share your mighty gift."  
  
Clouds gathered near Hogwarts.  
  
"Again I ask you, mighty Zeus, to aid me in my task!"  
  
A bolt of lightning cut through the clouds. It was as if it popped a seam in the sky, because right then, it started to rain in sheets, ONLY AROUND THE CASTLE. The water quickly doused the fire.  
  
Essie turned, victoriously, to Voldemort. "Like that, Voldey?"  
  
Voldemort growled. There was no way she could have known how to do that. The spell had sounded so ancient. Too ancient.  
  
He stalked over to her. "How in Morgan le Fey's name did you know how to do that?"  
  
Essie smirked. "Know how to do what? That was entirely made up. I think."  
  
Voldemort stepped closer. "You THINK?" he hissed.  
  
Essie pushed him away. OK. WAY too close for comfort. "Um, do all Slytherins have a problem with personal space?"  
  
He shoved her back. She fell on the ground. And her eyes gave a burst of scarlet power. Enough was enough.  
  
"You BASTARD." She knew one well-placed spell could kill her. But one well-placed spell could kill him, too. She levitated herself up and glided towards him.  
  
She was aiming all her wands at him. But he acted quicker.  
  
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"  
  
Green light exploded from his wand. Essie thought quickly and tried to divert his magic away from her body. But she wasn't quick enough. The magic hit her right on the center of her crystal choker. Sharp heat radiated from her necklace. She could feel it cut her flesh. She gave a scream of pure pain before collapsing to the ground.  
  
Voldemort eyed her smugly. That had almost been too easy. Amazing how easy to defeat cocky you witches were. There was absolutely no way to block the killing curse.  
  
Little did he know.  
  
He strolled casually over to her body, intent on kicking it, but as he was raising his leg, her "corpse" said something. Two things actually.  
  
"Locomotor Mortis."  
  
Voldemort fell on his back in a full body bin.  
  
Essie slowly got to her feet. The large crystal she had on her choker now pulsed with green flame. Somehow, she had controlled the curse just enough so that she had captured its essence (an: lol. Essence got essence. Err, right. On to story). She strolled over to Voldemort and casually picked up his wand and added it to the bundle she had pointed at his head.  
  
Voldemort gave one more stab at defeating her.  
  
"Come, come, girl. You needn't KILL me. Just JOIN me. I can feel your power. You could be great, you know. Just join me, call me your master-"  
  
Essie pressed the wands into his neck. "Cease your spewing, bitch. You? YOU, my MASTER? Gag me with a SPOON. Hello? I just defeated you. And I am but 16. I've not grown into my full magical potential yet. Who knows how powerful I'll be in 2, 4, 6, 8, TEN years? And YOU want to be my MASTER? YOU, who was defeated by a one-year-old INFANT, when you were in your prime-"  
  
"Harry Potter." Hissed Voldemort.  
  
"Yes, my Harry," Essie gave a small, slight laugh "Harry and I both share the secret to your destruction-WE are not intimidated my a mere NAME- VOLDEMORT!"  
  
Voldemort looked at her in shock. NO ONE spoke to him that way. "Who are you, girl, to speak to me in such a way? Who are you, you American wench?"  
  
Essie smirked. "How thoughtful of you to ask. I, am Essence Lei, begat of Beckilyn Lim, Begat of. . . Cordelia Marvolo Riddle, sister of Tom Marvolo Riddle." She smirked at his surprise. "Yes, Tom Marvolo Riddle is in my past, and in my present, but I hope to Dear GOD, he is not in my future, UNCLE."  
  
She summoned her powers to her body and began to talk in Parseltongue. "My legless friends of the woods, I invite you to this clearing."  
  
Voldemort's eyes widened in fear.  
  
"Slither quickly, for I have prey for you to squeeze."  
  
There was distinct hissing sound all around them.  
  
"My prey as killed many of your brethren."  
  
There were several flickering shadows dancing along the edge of the clearing.  
  
"He has possessed their bodies, shortening the lives of your kin."  
  
Several snakes started slithering towards him.  
  
"And he has tried to do the same with me and mine."  
  
Voldemort was covered in a living, breathing carpet of serpents bent on strangulation.  
  
"I only ask that we do the same to him."  
  
The carpet tightened. Voldemort gave a tortured gasp. He lay still upon the ground.  
  
"Thank-you for your kind task."  
  
The snakes nodded to Essie before they slithered away, into the forest.  
  
Essie still had her suspicions, though. And there was only one way to dispel them. She pointed all the wands at him.  
  
"Avada Kedavra"  
  
Voldemort gave a furious scream as the combined force of all the wands lifted his body and it started to burn. There was a curious smell of burnt flesh as Essie watched the corpse of her great-uncle turn to ash.  
  
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Thou shalt not return to the kingdom of heaven for what thou hast done. YOU SHALL BURN IN HELL."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
AN: and where was our dear Snapie in all of this? GETTING HELP, of COURSE!!!! Right! REVIEW ME!!! 


	17. The end is just the beggining with a sho...

Disclaimer: the only characters in this fic that I own are Essie, Loki, and Serena. The rest are the product of J.K. Rowling's amazing imagination and intellect. But I own the plot; so don't even TRY to plagiarize it.  
  
~Fic Starts Here~  
  
The next thing Essie knew, she was in the hospital wing, tucked in bed, the choker still on her neck. She winced when she felt for her jewel- there was a huge bloody bandage covering her neck, where Voldemort's curse had burned her.  
  
"I see you're up, Lei."  
  
She winced again. Snape. "Where am I and how did I get here?"  
  
"Hospital wing. I floated you up here on a stretcher."  
  
"A stretcher?"  
  
"Yeah, you know, one of those cot things, with canvas stretched in between two metal rods and-"  
  
"I KNOW what a stretcher is. I just can't believe you didn't hand carry me up here."  
  
Snape scowled and turned around. "Might as well get your medicine, now that you can consciously swallow it and I don't have to force feed it down your throat."  
  
Essie shrugged. Snape really wasn't that bad once you got to know him, and once he saved your life, he was your friend forever. And she knew she was going to need that a lot.  
  
She knew she had yet to be rid of Voldemort's legacy.  
  
Serena had survived.  
  
No one had to tell her. She could feel an evil, slutty presence floating on the back of her conscience. A conscience tainted with the aura of her great-uncle. She wasn't surprised. She was sure Serena had slept with Voldemort. And she knew the child would be dangerous if raised in the wrong hands. Young power was easily corrupted. She needed to talk. And the person she needed to talk to was right there.  
  
"Hi Harry."  
  
Harry sat up in his bed, quickly. "Did you kill him?"  
  
"Him, but not her. I think she's pregnant with his kid, too."  
  
"Damn."  
  
"I know." Essie just curled her knees to her chest and held them there tightly with her arms. "I don't know what to do, Harry."  
  
"Neither do I." He looked over to her. "Are you OK?"  
  
"Why didn't I remember her? I could have done her in, right there. . ."  
  
Harry was up and by Essie in a flash. "Sh, sh, it's NOT your fault. You killed Voldemort. That's all that matters."  
  
"But his kid-"  
  
"Sh. Don't think about his kid. We don't even know if it will be Dark or not. Or Serena might miscarriage. There are so many unknown factors."  
  
"And we can't even be together to deal with them."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Harry, listen. I love you. I will always love you. But if Serena finds us together, we will be much easier to defeat than if they had to search all over for one of us, and then the other. We alone have defeated the Dark Lord. If she found us together, we would be killed in a flash. But if we're separated, we have a better chance of surviving." She took his chin in her hand. "Do you understand, Harry?"  
  
He nodded.  
  
"Now, I have to stay here, in England-I don't want to jeopardize my family-and you can stay here too-but if we stay together we are like live bait. I'll probably stay with Snape-he can mentor me in Serena's ways. But you, you HAVE a home-"  
  
"The Dursleys do NOT count as a home."  
  
"Well, OK, you have a place to stay. Now Harry," Essie said, taking his palm in her hand, "I want you to promise that you will try to seek me out if you are in danger, even if we are far apart." She took her wand and cast a slight severing charm on both of their palms, making to tiny cuts. As she pressed their hands together, she kept going, "I want you to call me, through this connection, when you are in peril. Do you promise me, Harry?"  
  
Harry nodded.  
  
"Swear it."  
  
"I, Harry Potter, swear on the souls of my parents, that I will use this connection to call on Essence Lei, in my time of peril."  
  
"And I, Essence Lei, swear on my mother's life, that I will call on Harry Potter in my time of need."  
  
Still clutching each other's palms, they sealed their promise with a kiss.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Severus Snape chose that exact moment to walk in. He stopped abruptly. No. It couldn't be. Were they crazy? He understood their kissing-it was only natural. But they had to be absolutely crazy. A soft, sea-green light was emanating from their palms, right where their swear wounds were. Didn't they know how dangerous that was?  
  
Snape quickly strode over and forcefully pulled their hands apart. "Don't you two know how dangerous soul mating is? You could end up with a mixed soul and have some serious split personality disorder."  
  
Essie and Harry just looked at him with a very "Huh?" expression on their faces.  
  
Snape snorted. Or course they wouldn't know. Well, Lei might know, but it didn't look like she was in a very "think" sort of mood right now.  
  
"Didn't you ever think about where the expression "soul mates" comes from? Two people who are absolutely compatible can mate souls. You have to use blood as a catalyst, and several other things have to happen, but if you go too far, then stop, you end up having split personality disorder. Didn't they teach you this in sex ed?"  
  
"It's not like we MEANT to! We were just making a blood pact-"  
  
Snape snorted. JUST? JUST a blood pact? WHERE did this girl get her ideas?  
  
"-And we kissed and our hands did that weird light-y thingie and all that. I was just telling Harry how I'll have to stay with you over the summer-"  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"-Seeing as I've got to be cultured in Serena's ways-"  
  
"Oh."  
  
"-And we just started talking. And I think you need to teach Harry too."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because, WE'RE going to defeat her. Not just me. I can't do it along and Harry's proven himself against Dark wizards several times. So teach him, too."  
  
"Right. What if I began now?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Snape pulled a chair over to the bed. "Serena is a very complex character. I need all the time I can get to mentor you two about her and her ways."  
  
"Right." Chorused Harry and Essie.  
  
Snape nodded, as if he was acknowledging their status as his students for the first time. "Now, Serena's biggest weakness, like many humans, is pride. Hers is VERY big, which makes it an easy target. . ."  
  
~~~End of Fic~~~  
  
AN: whew! That was great!!!! I FINISHED IT!!!!! WHOOHOOOO!!!! Watch out for the sequel, yall! 


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